from Judith McDaniel
Another reflection on life-long learning.
I have been reading a small book on a large topic–forgiveness. This is not one of those “how to” books that promises everything will be dandy if you just… Authors Jacqui Bishop and Mary Grunte do give some directions to head in if you seriously want to learn about forgiveness, but the most compelling moments for me in this book are the reminders about what life is like when we choose not to forgive, to harbor our resentments and hurts like treasure.
I think T.S. Eliot described it profoundly in these lines from his 1934 play “The Rock”:
The desert is not remote in southern tropics,
The desert is not only around the corner,
The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,
The desert is in the heart of your brother.
Failing to forgive is a recipe for creating in ourselves a veritable waste land, another image from Eliot in which the reference is to the human heart – a symbol of aridity, emptiness, the failure of feeling.
A life fully lived, fully realized, fully experienced depends on this ability to forgive. I appreciate the reminder.
How to forgive when you don't know how
Tags: forgiveness, how to forgive, life-long learning, Wasteland
Dear Judith McDaniel,
I’m writing, somewhat belatedly, to thank you for your comment on our website. I’ve lost my assistant and had a cybermeltdown and am only now learning enough about the details of all this online publishing business to get back to the generous folks who’ve contributed to us.
We have more books in the pipeline, including our first, which will be back in print shortly. It’s entitled How to Love Yourself When You Don’t Know How: Healing All Your Inner Children, and it fully presents the process that was referred to in the How to Forgive Book. If you’d like to be notified when that’s available, please drop me a line with your email address and we’ll make sure to let you know.
In the meantime, may you have a beautiful autumn.
Jacqui
Jacqui Bishop, m.s.
Author, Speaker, Therapist
Promoting Common Ground Between Men and Women
Codeveloper of Inner Family Healing
Books:
How to Forgive When You Don’t Know How
How to Love Yourself When You Don’t
Know How: Healing All Your Inner Children
http://www.innerkids.net
http://www.jacquibishop.com (under construction)
105 Winding Ridge Road
White Plains NY 10603-2855
914-997-9611
914-659-2512 cel