Invitation to Embody Forgiveness

When you bring to mind someone, or thing, who hurt or wronged you, what happens in your body and spirit?  Believe it or not, these days the person who most fits that category in my neck of the woods, bringing bodily tension and energetic chaos, is me!  For my 6am Monday morning yoga class I planned to begin our time by sharing some thoughts on the value of leaning into the rhythms of death and rebirth, winter and spring, and falling and rising in our lives.  YET, in comparison to what I had in my heart, the words I spoke were rubbish!  And the class itself was definitely far from my best work.

Whether you can relate to my share, or you struggle more with others or life, I think Jesus’ tale about the Prodigal Son and the energy of forgiveness can aid our journeys today.  Jesus’ parable is a story about a father and two sons, wherein the dad represents God, or the nature of the Universe if you prefer, and the sons our egos.  While one son does everything wrong and thinks he’s a loser because of it, the other gets it right and believes that makes him a winner.  The father, though, comes to them each with forgiveness and invites them to a big ole party, because in the Divine’s eyes our doings do NOT define us, LOVE does and it names us masterpieces invited to the celebration of life just as we are!

Forgiveness, in my view, is one of the fundamental energies of Reality, because when we give grace to those who’ve hurt us and smile at life when things go poorly, wellbeing fills our spirits, while when we don’t, we suffer.  So, today I invite us to practice embodying forgiveness, remembering Love names everybody and everything as blessed by heaven as is!