Greetings, Luminous One!
What can follow Courage, our May theme?
It may surprise you what my answer is...
When I think about acts of Courage, it leads me straight to the Big Kahuna: Forgiveness.
Let's walk through it and discover why now it the perfect time to practice this...
I remember hearing about the Rwandan genocide that split the country in two, causing otherwise peaceful neighbors and family members to turn on each other until 800,000 people were killed in only 100 days.
When it was all over, the government had to come up with a plan for restoring a sense of trust in the ravaged communities.
They set up local courts so that the truth of who killed who could be spoken and heard by the survivors. As difficult as it was to go through this process, the goal was to heal the wounds by publicly declaring hidden deeds, not to punish the perpetrators, too many to count.
Everyone involved, victims and killers, knew they would have to continue to live side-by-side and it soon became clear that the only way forward was to Forgive.
This Forgiveness required that whatever urge there was to seek retribution had to be dropped. Entirely.
And here's where the Courage lies... to be wiling to release a story, especially a horrific one, asks that we bravely allow an old identity (an eye for an eye) to be released and a new one (living without blame) to take its place.
Not easy.
We all have stories that we tell ourselves about who we are and many of these become the reasons why we're the way we are, i.e., our identity.
For instance, I had a story years ago about why I was the way I was (parents' divorce, father abandonment, etc.) until I realized that I had built myself an identity cage that kept me locked in and unable to change to a new story.
In order to move forward in my life with a new identity, what worked for me was to embrace and Forgive myself for believing my own limited story so thoroughly. It was incredibly painful to pull those fundamental pieces of myself out and toss them away because they had become familiar aspects that had shaped me - without them, I felt desperately empty, and not in a good way.
But that emptiness became more comfortable as time went by and new information spilled in to create new stories that could serve me better.
We're often not comfortable with that emptiness because it can feel like we're lost in space, unfamiliar to ourselves. But if we brave on by Forgiving ourselves even for those feelings of awkwardness, then we can get through it.
And, like the Rwandans, when there's a goal of a better life, it's all worth it.
Why is this act of Forgiveness so important now?
Because, as I see it, in a divided world, the only path to Unity is to be willing to drop our stories and Forgive ourselves and others for their differing points of view. This is the healing elixir that the world needs now.
So, I'm offering you the Forgiveness practice to work with this month: click HERE to access it. I hope you find it useful and will share it with others. This version is from the 7 Days of Rest - you can fast forward to the practice.
(HINT: For an even more impactful experience, try using Forgiveness oil when you do it.)
This planet needs Forgiveness to start writing a new story. It all starts with us.
Forgive yourself for not knowing better at the time. Forgive yourself for giving away your power. Forgive yourself for past behaviors. Forgive yourself for the
Forgive yourself for not knowing better at the time. Forgive yourself for giving away your power. Forgive yourself for past behaviors. Forgive yourself for the survival patterns and traits you picked up while enduring trauma. Forgive yourself for being who you needed to be. -Audrey Kitching
Much love and infinite blessings,
-Hope
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