Come together with forgiveness
His family experienced what he called a “come together Christmas.”
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
He flew to Chicago four days before Christmas to see his mom and dad. Mom has an increasingly difficult fight with cancer. Her 88 years of memory are more and more spotty. Dad is stalwart and holds the fort admirably. It is beginning to show, however. He owns 100% of the do, go, shop, buy, prepare and repair. The visit was busy. Tiring. The days went by fast, as their minutes dragged.
Christmas Eve he flew from O’Hare to Denver International. His wife and daughters had started the Texas-to-Denver drive several hours before. They would all come together at his in-laws’.
That half of the clan has its own history. His father-in-law is not without a cocktail from mid-morning til bedtime. Mother-in-law proudly proclaims her 20-year denial. Laughing she punch-lines that she means denial of sobriety. Sister-in-law gave up smoking cannabis as soon as Colorado legalized its sale. That’s when she merely switched preferred consumption to chewing, like cowboys chewed tobacco in Colorado’s prairie.
The three days in the in-laws’ home were not what he is used to. The conversations rarely stayed on course, unless they were simultaneous monologues on diverse topics. There was often disagreement. Loud disagreement.
Recounting the week surrounding Christmas Day, he never lost his smile. He spoke with the post-holiday enthusiasm of shared love and happiness. He sounded sincere. I asked him what made it a good Christmas.
“We were with family!”
I love the explicit forgiveness–absolute and unconditional–in what he said and how he said it. The behaviors and the disease and the emotional suitcases were no matter.
What matters is the spiritual oneness of our human families and our Family of God.
Prayer of Thanks for Forgiveness
Sweet Source of All That Is,Giving forgiveness frees me from the burden
of “wrong” consciousness.
That I forgive lets me, causes me
to look beyond my human view
that something is wrong.
When I forgive I let go of what I see as wrong
and I embrace the truth that all is Spirit.
Spirit is good so all is good.
I love when that letting go and that embrace
come together.
And so it is. And so I let it be.
Amen.
Love and blessings,
12 January 2019
In: Forgiveness, Happiness, Prayer · Tagged with: Forgiveness
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