Forgiveness

Forgiveness. The act of forgiving.  According to Wikipedia,  "The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness as 'to grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offense or debt'."  I like the idea of granting free pardon. To give up all claim to an offense or debt.  The idea of forgiveness to me is to come to peace with an offense, come to peace by letting go and moving on.  It seems like a simple task.  Something I say many times a day. "Oh, forgive me" or "I'm sorry", and when I say this I really intend my recipient will  know how I wish for them to be at peace and let go of the offense I have brought into their life. Whether it is simply an accidental bump on the bus or elevator, or I jumped in to add to their sentence.  I often ask for forgiveness when I have un-intentionally or not, hurt the feelings of another as I recognize their sadness in my actions or words which have offended them in some way.  I make the offering most of the time assuming that it will be accepted and my intention of peace will keep the chain of communication open with my intended. 

I think of myself as pretty 'good' at offering others to forgive me.   However, when it comes to forgiving myself for small or large acts of offense, I have a long way to go.   I'm training for a running event, I tweaked my knee a little, so I have been icing and massaging and stretching and strengthening.  Although I've been doing all the 'right' things to care for myself while going through this fairly common runner's setback. I have yet to forgive myself for allowing myself to get hurt.  My self understands that doing a repetitive motion like running sometimes creates aches and pulls in the body that take some time to repair and heal. It only takes one run pushing a little to much too fast or a momentary twist of the ankle while running cross country that can through your whole training process into havoc.  I tend to think most people are very successful in giving themselves the peace of mind to move past setbacks in athletics or life.  I would like to be one of those people today.

I'd like to become one of those people who accept and forgive themselves as they go through life realizing that mistakes are what make them stronger and the more they make the wiser they become. Rather than holding onto these moments as heavy stones like bleak reminders of that holds holds us back and bars us from the ultimate that we'd like to be.