Tuesday, January 20, 2009

On Forgiveness

Forgiveness, you see, is the ultimate act of love.
Not love of another, with its many silhouettes,
but of your own self,
your body, your infinite mind and soul,
and your weary heart.
Letting go is not a setting down
of the burden,
or a release of the pain,
but rather an agreement with your ego
to consider love
not as something to receive
but as a gift to bestow upon your own self.

Forgiveness is not a single act,
it is not the end.
It is a peregrination into the desert of every day,
to find within the parched air and earth
a single drop of dew
radiating life.

Forgiveness, you see, is the ultimate act of grace.
It is charity without stipulation,
it is kindness without recompense.
It is a shaky unfurling of the clenched fist
and a quiet voice. It is the spark that drowns out the dense and uncertain fog.
It is the opposite of fear.
It is love,
yes it is,
in the truest and simplest form.

4 comments:

Pauline said...

Trine, this is one of the most beautifully worded pieces you've written. I have reread it a number of times, trying to pick a part that is particularly enlightening and have decided that the whole poem stands as an amazing testament to your ability to grasp and explain an esoteric idea.

etcetera said...

Thanks Momma. This came to me so quickly--it's so strange when that happens, like something is guiding the words. It started out differently. It was going to be about the ultimate expression of love for another person, but then I realized that it wasn't. As Jewel sings about in a beautiful song about mercy, "Loving someone else is always so much easier." The test for us perhaps is figuring out a way to express our love for our own selves.

Sky said...

this is lovely.

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