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January-March, 2022

Forgiveness *Does* Offer You Everything You Want

by Rev. Jennifer McSween, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

I’m writing this article at the end of November. Soon the Christmas season will be in full swing, and we’ll be hearing Christmas Carols and other seasonal songs repeatedly, on every radio station and television channel.

I already find myself humming what has become one of my favourite Christmas songs. It’s the “Xmas Song” — written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The opening lines are: “So, this is Christmas and what have you done — Another year over a new one just begun.”

I’m sure you’ve heard it yourself. Hearing these lines bring me a deep feeling of peace, joy, fulfillment, and happiness. But it wasn’t always this way. It only became this way from 2017 — the year I wrote and published my book — TRUE FORGIVENESS: The Proven Path From Pain to Power In Five Simple Steps.

It had taken me three years from the day I decided to write a book on Forgiveness, before I actually wrote the first line. But from the day I wrote the first line to the day I became a published author it took seven months — from March 10th, 2017, to October 10th, 2017.

I remember the goal I would set at the beginning of each of those three years would be: “Write my book this year.” But, come December I would not have even started… I would hear the opening lines of that song, and I would have this sad, sinking feeling deep inside me. I would think about how another year had come and gone in which I had yet not again kept my resolution, reached the goal, or met the intention I had set. And at times, that feeling was almost unbearable.

But in December of 2017, two months after I had become a published author, when I heard that song I was literally beside myself with joy! I remember responding to the line that asks: “And what have you done?” by shouting out loud like a Rapper: “I - wrote - and - published - my - book, - Bro!” (lol)

I also noticed that the feelings of peace, joy, fulfillment and happiness I was feeling were not only associated with the fact that I had become a published author. Those feelings seemed to have become the way I was feeling most of the time, regardless of what I was or wasn’t doing or what was or wasn’t taking place in my life.

As I thought about this change in my new way of feeling and being, I realized that writing the book about forgiveness, as taught in A Course in Miracles, led to a deeper level of learning and understanding of what it means to forgive. I had become more willing to forgive, seeing it for the simple and pain-free process that it really is. So I had begun to practice forgiveness more frequently.

The title of Workbook Lesson 122 is: “Forgiveness offers everything I want.” The first paragraph is a detailed list of the feelings we are always seeking, which include the feelings I mentioned experiencing above. The opening line of the second paragraph of Workbook Lesson 122 reads: “All this forgiveness offers you and more.”

Those feelings of peace, joy, fulfillment, and happiness that had become more present in my life were the result of my frequent practice of forgiveness. And these feelings are the end results that we are always seeking, regardless of the form of the goal or intention that we set, the resolution that we make or the thing we choose to do, have, or experience. It is never the “form of the thing” that we want, but the way we think it will make us “feel.”

However, we are often unaware that nothing (no thing) or no one can “make” us feel anything. And that what determines the way we feel in any moment or situation, is whether we are practicing forgiveness or engaging in judgment — which is the opposite of forgiveness.

So, as we come to the end of this year, and you reflect on what you have done and are thinking of the goal or intention you want to set or the resolution you want to make for the coming year, remember that what you are really seeking, regardless of the “desired form,” is a feeling. Make practicing forgiveness one of those goals, intentions, or resolutions for the New Year because forgiveness “does” offer you everything you want!

© 2021, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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