The Work Is Just Beginning

“Without forgiveness and love, you will live with resentment, bitterness, malice and strife which result in more pain. You can never love without forgiving. Forgiveness deepens your ability to love and frees you from pain.” ~ Kemi Sogunle

I started to write a post for today when I couldn’t sleep at about 4:00 a.m. Later this morning, Saturday, it was announced the Joe Biden was declared the President Elect. Oh my goodness, it has been a long week! I’m relieved but I want to temper my joy and celebration, because there are people out there today who are feeling the way I felt four years ago. They are sure the country is going to go in the wrong direction, they are sure the election was stolen, and lots of other conspiracy theories that I don’t even want to be aware of.

I was about to meditate when I got the news that the election had been called and as I settled down to be silent, I felt that what we need to be focusing on right now is forgiveness. I need to forgive my family and friends who might be Donald Trump supporters. And I need to forgive them for the possibility that they won’t forgive me for supporting Joe Biden. That’s something I’ve learned about forgiveness lately, that we have to forgive people who won’t forgive us for the mistakes we’ve made, or having opinions opposite to theirs.

This week I remembered something that happened when I was a teacher’s aide at a Montessori school in Spokane, Washington. I was working in the three year old room and one day I told a child that he needed to do something that he didn’t want to do. I could see the war going on inside him. He wanted to yell at me, but I was an adult. What recourse did he have. He couldn’t contradict me. So I said to him, “It’s okay. You can be mad at me. I’m an adult. I can take it.” I will never forget the relief that washed over his face. I had just given him permission to feel his emotions. He was willing to do what I had asked him to do because I showed that I understood him.

That’s what we need to do with our neighbors. We need to let them feel whatever emotions they’re feeling right now. We need to just be with them and love them even if they’re angry at us. That’s how we change the world; by loving.

I think this is a day to take in all the emotions the last four years have brought to the surface. As Hermione Granger said in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, “Everything is going to change now isn’t it?” To which Harry responded, “Yes”.

Take care of yourselves. To those of you going back into lock down, I pray for you, as I pray for all of us who are dealing with the virus and all the other problems that we must now address.

Blessings.

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2020

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.

The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.

Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a new podcast where she and her guests discuss the stories in all formats that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find her.