Forgiving and Receiving

What is it to be both for giving and for receiving? Yes, I’m playing with words again to help us see that there’s more to the words we use than we’re sometimes aware of. I’ve looked at hundreds of quotes on forgiveness-forgiving; and less than five percent of them specifically point to giving and receiving as an interchange of energy. You’ve heard it said that it’s more blessed to give than to receive but I say that it’s as blessed to give as to receive. Aren’t they two ends of the same magnetic field? Is it really possible to have one without the other?

How aware are you of  living in an interconnected and participatory universe in which everything is important thereby making everything about you important? Every time you are for giving the world changes. Every time you are for receiving, the universe changes. Every time you reach out and touch a heart everything changes. The energy you send out always comes back just like the aboriginal boomerang. Anger given is anger received. Love received is loved given. Forgiving and receiving are not occasional acts, they’re a constant rhythm like breathing.

Forgiveness is intimately connected with mercy, harmony, acceptance and transcendence. In each of these views, emotions and processes there’s giving and receiving of invisible and visible energy that can be experienced. There’s a transmission and reception, an ebb and flow of life giving energy that’s released into the physical, subtle and causal fields by you and me. Each requires a willingness and allowing to empower and encourage lovingness and delight. Our thoughts really do create things. We are the co-creators of our own realities . . .

In the above quote, Nelson Mandela, who had been unjustly imprisoned for over twenty years knew what it was to be imprisoned and freed from the inside out. He knew that the bitterness and hatred he had experienced needed to be transcended, included, and left behind before he could truly be free. He let go of the negative energy directed to him and his people to let come the reconciliation and freedom he wanted for all people. He stepped across an inner threshold to become the leader of a movement that transformed the world one act of mercy at a time.

The enemy is not out there somewhere. Rather, it lives within us and is in need of being loved. To love your neighbor is to first love yourself everyday without conditions. Every time you recognize a shortcoming or flaw out there to judge and condemn, you first need to see it in yourself, let go of it and let come the love and acceptance that is part of forgiveness. In this, a kindness is given and received that changes how you feel and experience the world. Lewis B. Smedes says: ‘To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.’

• If forgiving is also for receiving, have mercy on yourself today. Focus on feeling acceptance and love in everything you do. Be kind to yourself and notice how that transmits to others . . .

• Recognize that we’re all on a journey and still learning. Be patient, accepting and loving to yourself and others today no matter what. Notice the shift in your awareness and energy . . .

• Give yourself and others the gift of lovingkindness today and see what you receive from it . . .