The Gift of Forgiveness for Christmas

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart… forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.  – Hannah More

Tearful reunion.

There’s a reason it’s so difficult to write about forgiveness.  It’s not an easy action to tackle. It incites the most vulnerable of our emotions and requires us to accept and acknowledge occurrences that are often so hurtful we would rather not think about them at all.  Though often this single action, the act of forgiveness, can be so cathartic for us that it can provide the means to discover new things about ourselves and the life we’ve been holding ourselves back from.

This Christmas, the idea was to write a very heartfelt and emotional post on forgiveness.  A personal account about how learning to forgive has enriched my own life.  Only no matter how many times the words have been typed, retyped and then deleted, none of them seemed quite right.  Which in the end only led to the conclusion that maybe forgiveness is one of those things that I have yet to truly understand, something that still needs to take place within my own heart before I can write about it with any true sincerity and insight.  The truth is this is the most honest about the subject matter I can be.  I don’t understand it.  It scares me.  It makes me uncomfortable and still confuses me.  Though, for the first time in my life, I also think I am at the place where I am ready to learn how to forgive.

Instead of a tearjerker about learning how to forgive then, my challenge to you this Christmas is to consider your own feelings towards forgiveness and maybe even think about if you are ready to let go of some of the bent up frustrations and emotions you’ve been holding onto yourselves.  There really is no pressure if you choose not to.  It just occurred to me the other day that maybe learning how to forgive could be the greatest gift I could give myself esta Navidad…  if for no other reason than to simply enrich my own life.

I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas with all of your loved ones!  ¡Los Quiero!

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4 thoughts on “The Gift of Forgiveness for Christmas

  1. Forgiveness is one thing that has never been difficult for me. I don’t think I’m a kinder or more enlightened person – it’s just part of my personality. (It’s even put me at a disadvantage many times!)

    Even as a little girl, when my younger sister and I would argue, I’d be cracking jokes and trying to fix things within an hour or two, (while she could hold a torturous grudge for days at a time! — Strangely, this mirrors my relationship with Carlos. LOL.)

    I feel sad that it isn’t easy for everyone to forgive. Being angry and resentful is such a horrible feeling – it’s so energy draining and time wasting.

    If you feel the person doesn’t deserve forgiveness and they’ve never even apologized, that can make it more difficult — but do it for yourself. A weight is lifted when you just let it go.

  2. I’ve learned to get better at forgiveness over the years, but in my family we definitely can hold a grudge. That doesn’t mean we’re going to get in a fight with you… just that there will be understood line of where our relationship begins and ends. Once I started practicing forgiveness though it was kind of obvious that in general it made me feel happier. I’d like to continue this exercise and master truly learning how to be a more forgiving person. Soy muy pelionero, hermana 🙂

  3. Well done Juan. Such a great, thoughtful subject, perfectly timed and beautifully written. Like Tracy, I find it a little too easy to forgive sometimes, but it’s true what they say…forgiveness is not a gift you give to the one who wronged you. It is not something that the other party deserves or something to be earned. It is gift you give yourself. By choosing to let go, you are letting go of the negativity that is poisoning your spirit. If you are dedicated to reaching a deeper understanding of this topic, I recommend a quick internet search–there are lots of great books on this. May the joys of the coming Christmas season be yours!

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