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I’d rather write than talk. Nobody interrupts! Posting monthly or less now--see below. |
My original purpose for this blog, which I started in August of 2019, was to see if I could maintain consistency, to discover what I want to write about, and to find my writing voice. In January, I started a "niche-less" blog at Wordpress.com where I've published weekly. -- Kit’s Kontemplations  . -- I'm preparing to start a Catholic blog on Wordpress.com where I'll post weekly, and another site to put the rest of my writing. I also want to spend more time reading other blogs and offering thoughtful comments, both here on WDC and elsewhere. At most, I will publish once a month at no set time in this blog starting in September of 2020. Thank you to those who have read and rated any posts on this blog. I really appreciate it. I did NOT want to write “about” me on this blog. I wanted to share my interests, discoveries and maybe a few useful insights. If anything I've written helps even one person, whether or not they respond to the post, then this blog has been successful. |
It isn’t only our family members and friends who provide us with opportunities to practice forgiveness. Consider other provocations: professionals who harm us through their incompetence or negligence such as a doctor who misdiagnoses us careless or impaired drivers who involve us or a loved one in a devastating accident persons in authority who not only fail, but who refuse to protect us from harm, as in sexual abuse situations life, fate, the universe or God who allows us to be involved in a devastating accident, to contract some serioius illness, or to lose a loved oneIt’s hard enough to forgive when we have an accurate understanding of what forgiveness is and, more importantly, what it is not. If you’ve somehow absorbed any of the following beliefs about forgiveness, it’s no wonder that you believe it to be both undesirable and impossible: absolving the offender, excusing him or her from blame, guilt or responsibility letting the offender off the hook glossing over, or justifying the offence denying or minimizing the hurt and harm you’ve endured ignoring or forgetting what the offender did and its outcome symbolically setting the offender free from having to carry the burden of the suffering caused by the offenceForgiveness is an act of the will, independent of emotions. It precedes and is a prerequisite for the healing of the soul and possibly the relationship as well. It is a choice to let go of the desire for revenge Psychologists generally define forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness. Along with a false understanding of the nature of forgiveness, there are other reasons we deliberately withhold forgiveness from the one who harmed us or those we care about. We see denying forgiveness as a way to: force the offender to keep suffering gain control over a situation, we feel we had no control over take care of, honour and validate our own wound proclaim that our suffering exists and will always matter hold on to our rightness remain justified in our version of the truthForgiveness is not a feeling and it does not mean that everything goes back to how it was before you were hurt. There were significant consequences for what was done and one of these is a loss of trust. Forgiveness does not include restoring trust; once broken, trust needs to be earned. It is a gift we give to another. Unlike forgiveness, trusting someone is never something we are required to do. Forgiveness does not negate the need for justice. A good parent forgives a child’s misbehaviour but does not withhold punishment, a valuable life lesson that decisions have consequences. An offender may express remorse when confronted by the one he or she harmed but remorse in itself is not repentance. Experiencing the consequence of one’s actions will distress the offender. It may not lead to repentance which, by definition, includes consistent change of behaviour. From a Christian perspective:  We are warned that if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven since the mercy of God will not penetrate an unforgiving heart. If we pray the Lord’s prayer while refusing to forgive, we are calling down condemnation on ourselves. Unforgiveness afflicts a person with spiritual darkness and makes him or her vulnerable to having demons hold the soul captive. Unforgiveness poisons the soul and can destroy both emotional and physical health. Unforgiveness makes it impossible to grow spiritually or to increase in our intimacy with the Lord Forgiving is an opportunity to share in Jesus’ redemptive healing work. In his mysterious wisdom and profound love, when the Father allows someone to hurt or oppose us in some way, He is entrusting that person to our prayers. When our enemy causes us to suffer unjustly, our faith tells us that this was allowed to happen so that we might participate in the mystery of the Cross. Somehow, like those who offered their lives for our faith, the mystery of redemption is being renewed through our own sufferings. Sources: What Is Forgiveness? What does forgiveness mean? Pondering: What Does Forgiveness Mean to You? What Is Forgiveness Really? Releasing the Poison of Unforgiveness Prayer and the Struggle to Forgive |
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Yes, I know some people do that but I'm a creative writer not a journalist. Poetry sells ... but it's a money-maker for only a few. I write A LOT. Almost 180 pieces since Spring equinox. My goal is 300-400 per year. One year I went over 1,000. I need to do more editing, polishing, sharing, submitting. Writer's block? Who has time for that? I don't.