I believe that it is important to realize that most of us live our lives the best way we know how. We’re out there in the world trying to get the most out of life, making mistakes, acting on misinformation, and sometimes just doing stupid stuff. Yet, all the while, trying to be happy and be the best we can. I mean, nobody wakes up in the morning and says: “Great! Today is another chance to mess up my life.” In other words, most people are doing the best they can, where they are, with what they have. But since we’re all messed up, misinformed, and sometimes just stupid, is it no surprise we do things that hurt other people? Especially people close to us.
Lots of people spend their lives punishing themselves mentally and physically for some nonspecific shortcoming, they believe they have. Some overeat, some drink and some, like me, systematically destroy every relationship they have that means anything. Some make themselves sick and some choose to be poor as the appropriate punishment. All for something you thought, or said, or possibly did to someone else. So now you feel you don’t deserve to be happy or successful. Right? Well, now it just might be time to forgive. Forgive and let go. Let go and forgive.
If you feel that forgiving others is difficult, you’ll be surprised to hear that forgiving ourselves is even harder. I’ve heard it said that we are only healthy to the exact degree to which you can freely forgive yourself and others. The inability to forgive causes resentment, headaches, and other stuff all the way up to heart attacks and strokes. Some people never forgive their parents and mess up their lives just to prove to them what a lousy job they did. Their message is clear, it’s your fault my life is messed up, that I’m broke and lonely and unhappy. So, there, you can just sit there and watch me suffer.
Because your outer world reflects your true inner word, because you attract people and circumstances that harmonize with your dominant thoughts, because you become what you think about, your ability to forgive is the one indispensable quality you have to develop. In other words, when we choose to change, others change. Blaming others or ourselves gets us nowhere. So get started living by forgiving early and often…forgiveness, it’s the way to take charge of your life.
Mack Newton
Copyright Mack Newton. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the expressed written consent of the author.
