Forgiveness

I recently finished another book that I really liked. Very well written and insightful, however fictional it is supposed to be. The author's moral, under the guise of the heroine, has really stuck with me and I've wanted to analyze its parts, much like a sommeliers would do with a good red wine (not that I have any experience with that whatsoever...just love the imagery of soaking in the fragrance of a thing, allowing it to rest on your tongue while being quiet enough to notice all the ingredients and essences that make it complete).

Forgiveness. The frail beauty of the word takes root in me....I'll hold on to that fragile slice of hope and keep it close, remembering that in each of us lie good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrifice. We're each of us our own chiaroscuro, our own bit of illusion fighting to emerge into something solid, something real. We've got to forgive ourselves for that. I must remember to forgive myself. Because there's an awful lot of gray to work with. No one can live in the light all of the time. ~Gemma Doyle, A Great and Terrible Beauty

I am loving the thought that we are complex and it's okay! Cut yourself some slack for the dark moments, because they are part of the plan! Having trials/tribulation just isn't an option, they are essential and there's no getting around them. If we want to experience eternal joy, exaltation if you will, we must experience the opposite. In the poetic words of Dido, ...pain's the only way to happiness. AND it's okay! In regards to the above quote, I'm not sure if dark and light are necessarily internal, as in a part of my being, but I definitely believe that without the dark moments, we could not distinguish the light. Not that we are cruel or sacrificing--though both are essential to the juxtaposition of what we want beside what we don't want--but we can choose to participate in cruelty or compassion.

To connect my somewhat choppy thoughts: remember that part of the classic Meg Ryan film, French Kiss where Luke has Kate taste some wine then smell some wild mushroom, lavendar, etc., and then close her eyes and taste the wine again? The second time she can recognize the essence that surrounded the vine of the wine's origin, pointing out the flavor beyond the expected. What does this have to do with forgiveness? Like wine ;) I believe we are complex, layered, multi-storied. It's through getting down to the raw essence--beyond the expected or the apparent--that we can really understand ourselves and each other, then that we can see how many amazing options and possibilities we have right at our fingertips. When we realize that WE have possibilities, that our identity isn't just what you see on the surface, it opens up space for compassion towards others. Hence, creating room for forgiveness for ourselves and others.

Christ said, I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. How easily I forget that though I may be producing the grapes, I am only a branch on the vine. The True Vine, the source of life, my connection to the earth and all the essences that make up what is ME, is the Savior. Without Him, we are nothing. How quickly does He forgive? I believe it's immediate--as soon as we ask and He has commanded that we forgive all people. And that, my friends, includes ourselves.