Getting over it

http://www.rolandsmartin.com/blog/?p=147http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-karel-bouley/get-over-it_b_92855.html

The following is my comment in response to a blog entitled “Get over it.”

People do get over it by a process called grief. It doesn't happen all at once and at the end of it one is not in denial but acceptance. If someone has wronged you in the past it entails forgiveness. If the wrong is still going on, you keep working to come to terms with it and find ways to channel your sadness and rage into a constructive course of action. I'm visiting my 91-year old mother for Easter. We lost my Dad on Christmas Eve of 2006 to cancer and Mom had her own bout with the disease a year prior to Dad's death. She was brought up in the Methodist Church but for many years has found the affirming theology of Unity Church helpful. This morning I had just finished the sentence about forgiveness when I put it down to have breakfast with Mom. As is her protocol, she reads a passage from the Daily Word aloud before saying grace. The word for Saturday March 22 was entitled “forgive.”

“As I forgive I am renewed by the peaceful, life-giving energy of God. My heartfelt desire is to always live in an environment of peace. I know that forgiveness is vital to establishing and maintaining this peaceful, live-giving atmosphere. So if I feel that someone has offended me or somehow disappointed me, I release the resentment I have been harboring and feel the relief that I desire.” The reading ended with a Psalm: “Make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me.” Ps. 25:4-5. Mom finished reading and commented, “It’s good when you can.” Amen.