DAY 37: Forgiveness



The worst thing we can do to someone is to put them on a pedestal, because it leaves them with only a small margin to be human. No one can live up to unrealistic expectations, no one is fully in control of their lives, their emotions, their world all the time, inevitably ashes...ashes we all fall down.
Picking yourself up is excruciating enough, without having to face the judgement of those whose illusions you didn't live up to. Don't be too harsh on people who are in the process of fixing themselves. Know that they will backslide from time to time, because that is just how humans roll. If you can see someone is trying cut them some slack.

We should aim to be kinder to each other, not just your nearest and dearest...everyone. Kindness should become a habit. It should be our default setting. Even if someone angers you, or pushes all your buttons try to respond with kindness and see how the situation resolves itself. We are all such wonderfully delicate, insecure seedlings, and kindness is the fertile soil in which we can grow. I believe everyone has the potential for greatness, they just have to choose it and then they have to believe it, and we can help them with this belief by being kind.

So why did I call this post forgiveness if I seem to be going on about so many random things? It is simple, I believe the root of kindness is forgiveness. If you forgive someone not only for their past discretions, if you accept them for who they are and not some version of them you have created, and you forgive them in advance for things they are yet to do to you...you set them free, and that dear peeps is a gift. Forgiveness does not mean you have to condone their behaviour. If their trespasses against you were severe it does not mean you have to pretend like it never happened or that everything is now magically perfect or resolved. It simply means you let go...you let go of your unrealistic expectations, you let go of the negativity the situation awoke in you, and you reassess the situation.

To be kind you also have to forgive yourself. The people who provoke the most emotion in us, are often the people who remind us of something about ourselves we don't really like, or secretly fear, and we tend to react to them, we want to get rid of them because we don't always want to be faced with ourselves. But if you are kind to yourself, you embrace your flaws, you learn to love what you are, you are patient with yourself and you forgive yourself for everything that you are, and especially that which you are not, the kindness will trickle down from you to others. People will start to reflect this kindness back to you...and we all can live happily ever after.

Set someone free today...forgive.

Only 3 days to go...Whooohooo.