forgiveness

I had this thought in the shower today: the speed that one can forgive is the yardstick for spiritual progress.  

Forgiveness for those who have harmed you, (or even yourself, if you harmed yourself) is the cheat code to the game of life. 

Why hold on to anger? Why allow it to age and harden until it becomes a smooth, polished and cherished resentment? 

Forgive and then forgive and forgive again. As quickly as you can.  77 times if necessary. Especially the people who are closest to you.  It's relatively easy to forgive the person who cuts you off in traffic, you can think to yourself, "maybe they have a friend in the hospital" or something like that. A cognitive hack towards forgiveness. But often the people in your inner circle, when they hurt you, those wounds can be hard to forgive.

Of course, this isn't a new idea.  It certainly isn't my idea.  The importance of forgiveness has been written about literally thousands of years ago.  😉 🙏  The reason I'm writing about forgiveness like I invented it is because I feel the power of forgiveness. When I let go of my self-righteous anger and forgive, I simply feel better and life goes more smoothly.  It's pretty amazing.

Why was I carrying around that bag of rocks, all my grievances, when I could just put them down? Oh, and I'm not perfect,  I struggle with this concept.  I guess I'm just trying to be the best version of myself that I can.