Gratitude Lounge

Thank you, dear grateful. I will check those suggestions out!

I marvel at how we are given exactly what we need precisely when we need it. I had actually fallen a bit behind schedule in the class, though it is self-paced, which meant the forgiveness bit hit me right when I needed it. Cool. ????

I am also very psyched at how many resources I am finding on forgiveness! I have read some things before, like Lewis Smedes’ book, The Art of Forgiving. It is very good, though I do differ with him regarding self-forgiveness.

I think, too, that it may be time to watch the movie “An Unfinished Life” again. It is one of the best things on forgiveness that I have seen. Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, and Jennifer Lopez (without any glam). It is gentle, uplifting, thought-provoking and deep. Lasse Hallestrom directed it, and it has his imprint on it.

Dear Palm, my situation was pretty much the reverse. It took my moving away and them later following and living with us for the truth to become inescapable.

The stats on people with their specific disorder healing from it are something like a .00000099 chance. Even the most optimistic experts in it say they just do not heal.

Yet in my desire for their love, I convinced myself I had gotten a miracle, that they had healed enough to make relationship possible. I was wrong. To be fair, they fooled a few professional folks, too, who did not realize things were as askew as they are.

I love the saying! I think that is about right, though I think we can be dysfunctional with just ourselves sometimes, too! ????

Thank you, Cara Anna, for sharing this journey with me. I love how you say, “Forgiveness has its ways,” since it does look different in each case.

I once read a book called The Four Things That Matter Most by Ira Bylock(sp?) He was a hospice doctor who had seen how important it was for people to close the circle in their own hearts by saying these four things before they lost the chance. The things are, “Thank you, I love you, I forgive you, and Please forgive me.” The stories were beautiful and touching.

When my husband’s father, from whom he was estranged, was about to go into brain surgery, he could not leave me as I was too ill and needed help to do almost everything. Plus, he knew his reception by his mother might cause more distress.

He wanted to know what to do, what to say when he called. I suggested the four things, with which he was also familiar.

He said them to his father as well as his mother. With his father, there was as much reconciliation as I think was possible. He was also able to send his father a CD of pictures of our life here with some of his favorite music as background since he was no longer up to much. That was a blessing to both.

With his mother, it did not go so well but was more rejected. And when they moved, she did not give us their new contact information.

My parents lived here when I read the book, and I asked them to read it, too. They did, but pooh poohed it soundly.

So I think you are right, forgiveness must take many forms. The important thing, I think, is to figure out what will release our hearts. ❤️????????????