Forgiveness

29 Jan Forgiveness

by don Miguel Ruiz with Janet Mills

Before you learned to speak, you loved with no effort, you forgave with no effort. It was natural to love; it was natural to forgive. But then you learned how to behave from other people who didn’t love, who didn’t forgive. Today, if you really want to, you can return to love and let go of whatever is not love. Today can be a new beginning — a day to remember how to love and forgive those who are closest to you.

Imagine that you are in the presence of your mother. Even if your mother is no longer alive, she still lives in your mind. Imagine your mother sitting in front of you so that you can experience a communion of love with her. Imagine giving your mother the most wonderful hug and kissing her beautiful face. You can feel her emotional reaction to you, and what you feel is love coming from your mother to you. Today, in this moment, you can forgive your mother for any resentment you might have. You don’t need to remember what she did or failed to do; you don’t need to justify your resentments. To forgive is an act of love, an act of union to get together again.

Today, if you are a mother or a father, imagine the presence of each of your children in front of you. Feel all the love you have for them, and then forgive them and feel that they also forgive you. Today you can experience a communion of love with your children, a moment of communication, a moment of forgiveness. If you are not a mother or a father, imagine a communion of love with someone close to you whom you need to forgive. What happened in the past is no longer important. What is important is to enjoy the presence of the people you love the most.

Many things can happen in life, many misunderstandings and conflicts. But every time we feel hurt, it is because we believe in something that is not even truth — something that may look like truth, but is not. Believing in lies is how we get hurt; believing in lies is why we distance ourselves from the people we really love. Now is the moment to break free of all those lies and let go of all resentments.

Why not enjoy the people we love the most? Why spend precious time creating resentments against our parents because we want to be ourselves, and not what they want us to be? Why don’t we change our point of view and realize that we have so little time to let them know what we really feel in our hearts for them? Why not put away our pride and ask their forgiveness? It isn’t important that we believe they are to blame for some injustice. What is important is to let go of all that pettiness and get together again.

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Excerpt from The Circle of Fire: Inspiration and Guided Meditations for Living in Love and Happiness. Copyright © 2001 by Miguel Angel Ruiz, M.D. and Janet Mills. Reprinted by Permission of Amber-Allen Publishing, Inc., San Rafael, California.