Homing – Forgiveness

Warriors Are At Home In the World – What’s “home” to you? A warrior’s training emphasizes understanding and managing the fragility of the human body and the objective world, and accepting our healing and unifying mandate. Once we have scoped out the terrain and the inhabitants, Warriors are at “home” anywhere.

Warriors are About Justice – but not the kind that leaves more brokenness behind. Warriors display with their achievements and physical selves a triumph of thought, will and love.

Warriors Create The Future – Sometimes we dream of a home that no longer exists, or never existed. “Home” actually represents the state of psychic absolution where mistakes are forgiven and the past falls away. We commit to the ultimate understanding where sins are never too terrible to be entirely forgotten. Jesus suggests to us that state doesn’t arrive until we learn to be the “forgivers”. Obviously, this means we must learn – somehow – to forgive ourselves.

What Does It Mean to “Start Over”? – We don’t wish to be free of “consequences”. We want to learn and grow from our mistakes but not be humiliated and punished for them. Pretending they didn’t happen doesn’t free us. Seeing our mistakes as moves in a dance we all contribute to frees us from painful rumination and helps explain the prison of blame. “I did this because you –“… Human interactions are a tar-pit in which we trap and tar ourselves. We realize we need to forgive every chain in the event pattern if we are ever to have any peace.

It’s All About You – Robert Frost defines “home” as a place where, when you show up, they have to take you in. Defining “they” defines your group, your original home. Philosophy may provide an answer. Buddhists see history as a circle, Christians as a spiral. The question for Christians is, which direction is the spiral headed and do we have time to learn what we need to know before there’s a cataclysm? Can you define the mess we’re in and intuit your behavioral contribution? Is it possible to detach from the mess? In what group – or even in what “moment” can you detach from the mess?

Warriors’ Danger – We can’t afford to get mixed up about right and wrong. “By their fruits shall you know them.” Think it through. One avenue leads to health, dignity and growth; the other leads in the opposite direction. Don’t make the mistake of “fundamental attribution error”. The call is NOT coming from inside the house. Martin Luther King Jr. made the wise comment that our specific brand of capitalism tends toward is “socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the rest of us.” It certainly suits corporations to lecture their employees on building a better world without incorporating any of those ideas into the bigger picture, where we have no control and they demand absolute freedom. It is important that our resistance – which is necessary and life-giving – not embitter us.

Warrior Opportunity – Forgiveness doesn’t require ignoring the past or accepting bad behavior. It’s part of an interaction where forgiveness is requested. Usually there is a recognition of fault or an expression of remorse: “I’ll never do that again!” When the requesting party seeks permission for the suffering to continue, “I can’t change” — that’ a different request. “Home” is not re-created that way. Hell is. Your opportunity is to point this out – if necessary, to yourself. “If I’m not willing to try giving up my behavior because I think I’m not able to, this pattern will continually get worse.” And then construct an intelligent map.

Models & Mentors – “It’s not an easy journey to get to a place where you forgive people. But it’s a powerful place, because it frees you” – Tyler Perry

“The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world” – Marianne Williamson

“The weak can’t forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong”

– Mahatma Gandhi

“To forgive one another, we must understand one another” – Emma Goldman

“Forgiveness does not exonerate the perpetrator. It liberates the victim. It’s a gift you give yourself” – T.D. Jakes

#Haiku: Forgiveness

Returning home with
Newborn eyes
Strong hands
Fresh translations
Future’s past