Reconciliation Day

I spend a lot of time in my spiritual studies learning or teaching about forgiveness. When I read recently in Experience Life magazine that tomorrow, April 2 was Reconciliation Day, I knew I had to write about it.

And how wonderful that the day falls on the Good Friday of Easter weekend!

The magazine featured an amazing story of forgiveness and recommended steps to bring it about. I've also been reading an inspirational single mom blogger's struggle to forgive herself for the sake of her daughter.

We all have our own steps to forgiveness, reasons and people to forgive. To me, forgiveness is deciding to let go of the blame, the anger, the poison that is no longer hurting the object of our hate, but ourselves. I've also learned that removing the blame from others and blaming yourself is the exact same thing. The pain is still there, either way. Where there is pain, there is hate.

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

I need this right now. I still have many old wounds that need care, love and healing. I need to look at myself and forgive these thoughts that bear on me and drag me deep into a dark place that I sometimes struggle to crawl out of.

I have learned in my own experience that forgiveness brings peace of mind, self-acceptance, generosity, kindness and love where you'd least expect it. Both of the above stories and many, many others have proven the same thing.

There is nothing really to add. Except your own stories....

Who will you consider forgiving this Reconciliation Day?

"For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."
~ Buddha

"It is wise to direct your anger towards problems -- not people; to focus your energies on answers -- not excuses."
~ William Arthur Ward

"...for as blame is withdrawn from without, there is a strong tendency to harbor it within.

It is difficult, at first, to realize that this is EXACTLY the same thing....

That is why blame must be UNDONE, NOT re-allocated…"
~ A Course in Miracles

Also check out this article by Karen Salmonsohn on bouncing back from adversity.