My "meanders" are so much more meander-y than this. Here is the meandering that your meander triggered.
I think forgiveness is such a misunderstood concept. So often we treat it as an exoneration, or letting off the hook, or reconciliation. But, isn't it really more simple than that? It is detaching from something that causes us pain. Releasing the hold that some "wrong" has on us. It is a choice we make for ourselves. So, self-forgiveness is a choice we make to release the shame, guilt, disappointment, criticism, and wounding that we do to ourselves. It is the recognition that self deprecation serves no purpose, so why do it? Release it. Let it go. Unburden ourselves from it.
I'm trying to make that kind of release a habit. I screw up. I see it. I reflect on it. I learn from it. I let it go.
Oof. I love your small meander. It feels very necessary. I'm especially feeling this: "But my sensitivity to suffering in the world is greatly reduced when I stop trying to fix the unfixable and focus instead on being alive." I have been so weighed down these last few months especially by the suffering in the world that I cannot fix. My friend Sarah and I were just discussing this mutual feeling, and how one of the best ways out of it is to focus instead on small joys, moments, pieces of light. Then we get enough energy to lift up our heads and go on another day, another five minutes, another span of time that gets us somewhere better. Not to say that there aren't things we can do to try to alleviate suffering--our own and others--but to say that there are so many massive, systemic, unbearable injustices and wrongnesses in the world that cannot be fixed easily or in a lifetime. I know you know what I'm saying. Anyway, thank you for this gift that you've shared here. It gives me a sharp feeling of aliveness.
My "meanders" are so much more meander-y than this. Here is the meandering that your meander triggered.
I think forgiveness is such a misunderstood concept. So often we treat it as an exoneration, or letting off the hook, or reconciliation. But, isn't it really more simple than that? It is detaching from something that causes us pain. Releasing the hold that some "wrong" has on us. It is a choice we make for ourselves. So, self-forgiveness is a choice we make to release the shame, guilt, disappointment, criticism, and wounding that we do to ourselves. It is the recognition that self deprecation serves no purpose, so why do it? Release it. Let it go. Unburden ourselves from it.
I'm trying to make that kind of release a habit. I screw up. I see it. I reflect on it. I learn from it. I let it go.
Love this...just what I needed to read. Also I love the idea of "living in a particular direction" as opposed to a destination. Yes!
Oof. I love your small meander. It feels very necessary. I'm especially feeling this: "But my sensitivity to suffering in the world is greatly reduced when I stop trying to fix the unfixable and focus instead on being alive." I have been so weighed down these last few months especially by the suffering in the world that I cannot fix. My friend Sarah and I were just discussing this mutual feeling, and how one of the best ways out of it is to focus instead on small joys, moments, pieces of light. Then we get enough energy to lift up our heads and go on another day, another five minutes, another span of time that gets us somewhere better. Not to say that there aren't things we can do to try to alleviate suffering--our own and others--but to say that there are so many massive, systemic, unbearable injustices and wrongnesses in the world that cannot be fixed easily or in a lifetime. I know you know what I'm saying. Anyway, thank you for this gift that you've shared here. It gives me a sharp feeling of aliveness.