Tonight’s retreat needed to be fast one. First of all, I didn’t have much time to devote tonight to this, since both of the kids are still up and Chris just headed to bed. Lastly, I have someone in my life, actually 2 people who I need to work on forgiving. But I honestly am not ready one bit to even think about forgiveness at this point. I’m still in the thick of the emotion, haven’t had the time or the space to think about forgiveness for them at all. In fact, just imagining that I’m thinking about forgiving them, gives me the creeps.
So, since the next chapter in the book dealt with forgiveness, I hoped that there would be some sort of exercise that I could do without really delving into my serious forgiveness issues. And there was an exercise that I thought would be appropriate for me at this time. There was also one part that I read that made me feel better about not being ready to forgive. She writes, “We cannot push or rush forgiveness. We have to begin with where we are with our true feelings, and then trust that we will gradually progress toward forgiving.” Whew!
The exercise that I chose was:
One Minute Retreat – Forgive Us Our Guilt
Guilt seems to be inevitable in our western culture. I explain to mothers, especially, that a certain amount of guilt goes with the job. It cannot be alleviated by therapy, only lightened by humor, and perhaps, this small retreat.Imagine that you can take one specific feeling of guilt and throw it up in the air, just as you might toss a bird up in the air, encouraging it to take wing. Toss the guilt up. Let the wind carry it away. Repeat, if necessary.
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August 24th, 2006 at 8:55 am
Good advice for us moms.