As You Approach the Season of Thanksgiving, How Willing Are You To Be Forgiving?

The giving of thanks is an expression of gratitude. Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving is celebrated as an expression of the Pilgrim’s gratitude for their escape from religious persecution in Europe and for their survival in the New World.

In England, our "Harvest Festival" is our way of giving thanks to God for the bounty of the harvest. The way it is expressed there is not so much by gorging turkey, green beans and sweet potatoes, but by bedecking out the churches with incredibly beautiful displays of all manner of produce that nature has bestowed upon the populace during that year and then, after church, going down to the pub for a pint of Britain’s Best.

But as Joseph Farah points out in his Between the Lines blog, "It wasn’t just an economic system that allowed the Pilgrims to prosper. It was their devotion to God and His laws. The Pilgrims recognized that everything we have is a gift from God – even our sorrows (my italics). Their Thanksgiving tradition was established to honor God and thank Him for His blessings and His grace."

The Pilgrims, it seems, understood the basic idea of Radical Forgiveness. Giving thanks to our Source (God, Spirit, Universe, Universal Intelligence, etc.), for "our sorrows" is to recognize and give thanks for the blessings that come from the challenges we are given and from which our soul has the opportunity to learn and grow.

If everything flows from our Source, even our sorrows, wisdom decrees that we must be willing to not only thank but forgive those who provide such opportunities, no matter how much they appear on the surface to be our enemies. The Pilgrims, it seems, understood that fundamental idea which is the basis of Radical Forgiveness. It’s all good and it’s all part of the Divine Plan. How willing are you to forgive on this basis?

Here’s my suggestion. When you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner with your family and bow your heads in that special moment of thankfulness, make an effort to think of some of the people in your life that you might forgive . Allow yourself to become willing to entertain the possibility that the people you have judged, condemned, criticized and perhaps even punished, did what they did not so much TO or AGAINST you , but FOR you. Then try to feel some sense of thankfulness that their soul was willing to do this for you, knowing they would probably have to endure your ego’s negative reaction to them.

Fortunately, willingness is all that is required for Radical Forgiveness to occur. Belief is not necessary, neither is any understanding of the reasons why things happen the way they do. Try it and see what happens.Blessings,

Colin

"Radical Forgiveness is much more than the mere letting go of the past.
It is the key to creating the life that we want, and the world that we want.
It is the key to our own happiness and the key to world peace.
It is no longer an option. It is our destiny."