At first, this morning’s coffee reminded us about forgiveness. Forgiveness for others, and forgiveness for ourselves. Many times we come to forgiveness because we have reached a point of surrender, we simply accept things for how they are and let them be. But there is an element of true forgiveness that we’re asked to further explore. And that is the element of deep understanding. As Josie de Vere often says, “we must extract the wisdom from a situation or circumstance.” 

It is important to consider this because true understanding and acceptance are two different things. Accepting something does not mean you understand it. But understanding something even the tiniest bit naturally carries a level of acceptance which makes it easier to move forward with a lighter heart. The deeper the understanding, the lighter the heart.

And of course all of this applies to our past. All the things which have happened to us. The things and people we can blame for our current situation. If we go in search of the wisdom of our pasts we can begin to see how and why we acquired certain patterns of behavior. It is through this understanding that we can begin to let them go. Understanding is how we can begin to truly forgive our influences, and ourselves for succumbing to them. From this point we can begin to see that our pasts didn’t “create us,” they cultivated us.