I’ve taken up the forgiveness practice that Kathleen is offering me and, just like the invocation of universal law, I’m starting to see things.
I of course was a resistant little snot, who carried a gunnysack a mile long and never forgave; never forgot. As a seven-year-old child.
It’s been so hard to forgive my Father that I’d just about given up on myself.
But what Kathleen has gained from forgiving everyone in her life impressed me and so I persevered.
A vasana having gone off today to do with my Father, she helped me “source” (or complete) it.
It wasn’t so much the completion of the vasana that was remarkable.
What was remarkable was that I stood once again at the threshhold of forgiving my Father – well, yes or no?
And I realized at that moment that I didn’t know how to forgive.
And virtually at the same moment I was flooded with memories of how we used to forgive each other, shake hands, and start again all through my early years. I knew how to forgive. (1)
And with that amount of recollection, I could now forgive my Dad in my imagination and let bygones be bygones.
I agreed to stop my forward motion and get along from this moment on.
Will it last? Who knows? But I feel a good sense of peace right now.
The work Kathleen is doing with forgiveness picks up from the work she and others have done on core issues, false grids, etc. After cleansing ourselves of our vasanas, forgive everyone in our lives.
I can feel a lump in my throat so I don’t think I’ve forgiven everyone on my list yet. But, now, I remember how to do it.
Footnotes
(1) I don’t overlook the effectiveness of ritual here: agreeing to stop, shaking hands, and agreeing to start again was a ritual that everyone honored. Almost no one wanted to prolong conflict, among the kids I knew.
Remembering how it was in those years when we forgave each other hooked me up again with a flood of other pleasant memories. It was like bridging “the bad years.” I can forgive all of them as well.