9:28:00 PM
I'd like to share a short story that's really wonderful. Please take your time to read and reflect the story to yourself.
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A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. In a specific point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped
the other one in the face. The one, who got slapped, was hurt, but without anything to say, he wrote in the sand: "TODAY, MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE". They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who got slapped and hurt started drowning, and the other friend saved him. When he recovered from the fright, he wrote on a stone: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE". The friend who saved and slapped his best friend, asked him, "Why, after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now you write on a stone?"
The other friend, smiling, replied: "When a friend hurts us, we should write it down in the sand, where the winds of forgiveness get in charge of erasing it away, and when something great happens, we should engrave it in the stone of the memory of the heart, where no wind can erase it"
Learn to write in the sand.
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Yes. Learn to forgive. No matter how hard it is. Just say, "I forgive". Or if you can't do it, then say, "I want to forgive". Forgiving frees you from any chains, from any grudges, from any pain. Maybe you can take the time to reflect on your life until today, from way back to ever since you can remember. Because childhood is crucial. If something happened when you were very young, and you couldn't forgive for any reason, then you'll be stuck on that spot forever without you even acknowledging it. It will effect your personality, way of thinking, perspective, etc. Reflect back. See if remembering something unhappy still makes you sad, angry, disappointed, betrayed, ... or even cold. No feeling doesn't mean you've forgiven. It simply means that you might have suppressed the feeling, as to be like, "Oh, I'm feeling fine about that problem. I'm fine now, see? I'm pretty cool about it. I'm not even feeling sad anymore. So there's no need to talk about it anymore." Wrong. Like a wound, if you just forget about the pain and don't do anything to it, the wound will not heal. You have to apply a medication and put a band-aid over it. Slowly but surely, it will heal. Same goes to your soul. If by reflecting back you remember something, bring back the unpleasant feeling to the current situation. Be sad, be angry, be disappointed. And then you, as an adult you are now, try to accept and forgive the people involved, the situation, the problem.... anything that made you feel what you feel. You won't be feeling fine right away after that, no. Forgiving is a process. Keep doing that everytime you remember, then one day you'll realize... that by remembering a certain unhappy thing doesn't make you feel bad anymore. You can smile upon it and say, "I'm thankful that it happened in my life. Because it's truly a great experience to make me more mature, as I am now."
Forgiving has done a lot of miracles in my life. And so I'd like to share it with everyone.