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Easy Does It, Easy Rider

Forgiveness is all-powerful.

Forgiveness heals all ills.

-- Catherine Ponder

Getting mad at someone, a friend perhaps, is normal. Everybody gets mad sometimes.

But when we stay mad for very long, it ruins all the fun we'd planned on having throughout the day.

Staying mad multiplies.

Sometimes it seems we are mad at the dog, our mom, another friend, even the TV.

Forgiving the people we're mad at works like magic.

We don't even have to forgive them out loud.

We can forgive them in our own minds.

The result is the same.

Pretty soon the whole day looks bright again.

When we're mad, we are the ones who suffer most.

Who would care to question

the ground of forgiveness or compassion?

-- Joseph Conrad

Beautiful Flower Rule

Some people don't seem able to accept the things that come to them; they always want to go back and dwell on how it was before and what mistakes were made by them and others.

Sometimes they want to prove, by this recital of past errors, that they were right; sometimes they seem to want to dwell on their own fallibility.

We can't make much progress toward serenity of the spirit without reconciling the past.

If old wounds or conflicts rankle, we need to accept them, forgive them, and let them go.

Above all, let's forgive ourselves.

Those past errors turned into valuable lessons, didn't they?

Life is too short to hold grudges, and they take up energy and time that we could use for spiritual growth.

Each day is new, and this new day is all of time for us, right now.

This day can flow pure and clear or we can choke it with old grudges, regrets, or fears -- the choice is ours.

__________

10/03/2002

( Permission to use the copyrighted images of Jean-Paul Avisse is licensed from Prestige Art Galleries, Inc. )