diane meriwether

There are two spiritual games I play, rackets as Alan Watts might say, as meaningless and diverting as solitaire on my phone. One is spiritual bypass, and the other is spiritual materialism. They are related. Spiritual bypass is the hope that I can transcend the painful grit of my life by rising above it spiritually. Maybe I won't have to feel my chest and groin torn apart when my lover betrays me, maybe I can just forgive everyone involved - as a saint might do. As it

I hope my legacy will be ripples. I hope the people I've taught to use "hurt" instead of "broken" hold that small aperture open for someone else. I hope that people who have watched me notice what they got right instead of what they got wrong do similar things for their fellow humans from time to time. I hope the forgiveness I have given and pain I have transmuted will mean a bit less suffering in the world. When I haven't been a good example, I hope my work as a terr

Maybe God doesn't see it like us. If there is a god, she might see time quite differently than a mortal. She might be calculating not just local impact, but how its ripples change and affect suffering over multiple time frames. If there is a god, they might see death as returning and not leaving. If there is a god, we might not have complete control. If there is a god, he might not share our aversion to suffering. #pain #god #forgiveness #suffering #perspective

I want to address two traps: Becoming free does not require the other person's cooperation. Becoming free does not have to be done before the other person dies. Forgiving the unrepentant. You have already paid by being your father's child. You paid with suffering, confusion, humiliation. Perhaps, as I did, you paid with bruises and blood. Healing is how you collect what you paid for. Insight, compassion, release, a wicked sense of humor, abiding peace, the determination n

Like so many things, the purpose of forgiveness is not the end of the process. The purpose of dance is not to finish dancing. The purpose of a vacation is not the plane ride home. The purpose of forgiveness is to transform pain into insight, and suffering into depth. Forgiveness starts right in the core of resentment and anger the second we become willing to let it go. If you have been trying to forgive for years, for years you have been forgiving. It is a wise and honest