Flipping the Coin of Forgiveness and Gratitude

In practicing gratitude for our experiences in life, we come upon times where we experience hurt, anger, frustration, dissolution, pain.  Can we even think about being grateful during these times?  The gift in this cycle is 'Thank Truth' .  We look for the Truth, open ourselves to what is Truth, (with an uppercase 'T') when we are confronted with the challenges of living life. 


Self Reflection: Forgiveness and gratitude are two sides of the same coin.
If this coin comes into my possession, I have received a gift more priceless than gold. It is a gift which brings me a freedom greater than I have ever known!

We All, Eventually, Return Home to Ourselves

29 days on a journey committed to loving what is Truth will reveal parts of our character that have previously been hidden in shadow.  As we embrace these parts of our selves, such
harmful behaviors, errant beliefs, or judgments (of self and others), it is common to experience feelings of shame.
Love Truth invites us to compassionate forgiveness of ourselves for all the foibles of our life journey so far.  we are the prodigal goddess of Sara's poem.  The parent we are returning to is ourselves, the woman we are becoming; the woman Love Truth has invited us to see as Truth.  We are returning to a mansion where a life rich with possibility, creativity, growth and abundant love is waiting to be experienced.

Wait no longer to Love all the Truths of your journey thus far. Embrace the imperfections of your life as a human being. This conscious act starts the healing, just as in Jamie Sams' story of Loves All Things.

Sewlf Reflection:  Have I allowed ALL of me to return to rest in my own being, in my heart?

Love Truth is Letting Go of the Need for Perfection

What have I encountered on this journey to Love Truth?
I have encountered the Truth that to Love Truth is to let go of my idea of the need for perfection.
I could name this a journey 'love imperfection', 'love patience', 'love what is hard to love'.
In my imperfections I recognize I have caused harm to others.
To love the truth of my human fallibility, means I can send a prayer for the one I have harmed.  
I can open myself to receive the grace of self-forgiveness, and in doing so
Grace comes through me to amend for the suffering my own suffering has caused another.
In the truth of Love Truth, grace can come through me.
And I can offer comfort through me.

Self Reflection: What am I encountering on my journey to Love Truth.  I wonder what is yet to be revealed?

The Quest to Love Truth Bridges the Gaps in Our Perception and Judgment

The quest to love Truth is the journey of compassion.  The Truth cycles up to this point have been offering us gentle invitations to embrace a more compassionate way of living: with ourselves, with others, and in the world. On this quest to Love Truth we now come face to face with what we perceive or judge as wanted or unwanted, good or bad, kind or hurtful, honorable or shameful...For most of us, coming face to face with the undesirable of these is like coming to a cliff edge 'reality' and come to an abyss of our fear-based perceptions and judgments.

Our options are always the same:  We can turn back, taking up our addictions for comfort and retreat. We can freeze-up emotionally or physically and become frozen into inaction. We can fight them until they consume us and we end up falling into the abyss. OR...we can build a bridge of compassionate forgiveness, one plank at a time to span the abyss of our dark shadows--all those places we can not yet truthfully see in ourselves, judge in others, and perceive in the world.

Self Reflection: When I lay down my judgment of self and others, I am freed to accept the Truth,  I am able to love what, in my error of perception, I deemed unlovable. I am freed from a prison of my own making, and I cross the abyss toward a freedom of great love.

Forgiveness as an Instant Disolver of Anger

From Mary Z: Jamie Sams writes, “In her wisdom, Loves All Things teaches us that we can find the joys of physical life, without trying to escape our pain through becoming addicted to false pleasures or compulsive behavior patterns.”

I have a pattern of diffusing painful situations with humor or flattery only to succumb to internalizing the hard feelings I could not express to another.  Carolyn talked about forgiveness.  If forgiveness is for the self, how does one forgive when the feelings come from within one’s own self?

I only recently realized how angry I was at someone who had taken advantage of me a few months back.  I feel I cannot forgive him without him understanding how hurt I was.  Yet tonight I was finally able to express my feelings in writing.  A weight was lifted when I wrote down the words.  Is that the healing feeling of forgiveness?

I become overwhelmed trying to figure out where I took the wrong turns in life that leave me so unhappy so often in the present.  Focusing on a current emotion and doing something about it fostered a lightness I have not felt in a while.  Can past sins be forgiven by breaking a few patterns in the present?

Jamie Sams writes, “Forgiving the self for being human…usually dissolved the anger instantly