It's all about forgiving.....

I read something a couple of days ago that turned me back into my miserable self, when during the course of the week I made a consorted effort to pick myself back up. It was a blog entry on the web about letters of forgiveness.

In practice you write a letter to someone, you tell them in that letter what they did to hurt you, following which you write that you forgive them for it. There was a "sample letter" on this blog, that a man had wrote to his father who had been abusive and distant for his [the man] whole life. There were many comments and good wishes, including many people talking about their own forgiveness letter experiences. It's not always necessary to actually give the letters to the people. You write it as a form of release. I suppose whether or not you give the letter to someone depends on the circumstances.

Those who chose not to pass on the letter, or wrote to friends and relatives who had passed away had "rituals" such as burning them or attaching them to helium balloons and letting them fly off. I suppose it's good to get those thoughts down on paper and throw them out into the cosmos, and with any luck be relieved of ill feelings placed inside.

I've got hopes of this task. I think that there are an awful lot of things whirling around in my head these days that need putting to bed. Some of which are things that are not even relevant to my life now, but still in some way are hiding just beneath the surface, and preventing me from growing as a person. My plan for the evening is to write a list of those who have brought some form of pain to me, and forgive each and every one of them.