Sea of Forgiveness

Today, all day, I am trying to swim in the sea of forgiveness - maybe drown in it. At least let myself pinpoint and feel the feelings of it. As I was meditating this morning, I became aware of disappointments, regrets, hurts that I thought were long ago dealt with and gone. Some of these, I didn't even realize needed to be dealt with, actually. Anyway, particularly in our culture, I don't think we pay enough attention to dealing with these things - grief, for example. Grieving when someone dies that we love has been reduced to 1.5 days off work, no time for reflection or feeling the pain of loss - nope, stuff those feelings down, buy a new black outfit to wear and greet the people. Be strong. Grieving over being wronged or disappointed or hurt - unheard of. We're looked at as weak or immature. And yet, those feelings are really still there, whether we express them, stuff them way down deep, or ignore them. So how do we deal with them? All I know is that it seems that allowing yourself to feel the feelings and not run away from them, has to be helpful. Well, I've digressed - surprise, surprise. Anyway, I'm setting my intention and purposefully trying to extend forgiveness today to some people who have, by their actions, wounded me and affected my life profoundly. I'm not trying to justify what they did, I'm not trying to make excuses or understand what they did. Just trying to extend the kindness of forgiveness to others in the hopes of setting myself free of the resentment and loss and regret that's been hiding in my soul that I didn't even know was there. Freedom is the goal.