I chose today's meditation reading from a book that helped me heal my relationship with my father who passed away many many years ago. This reading allowed me to recognize how the hurts from my past were affecting my listening in the present. I forgive my father for forsaking his light in my presence. He abandoned himself which caused his hurtful behavior. I choose not to abandon myself but love and respect myself.
"The Sacred Art" of Listening by Kay Lindahl
"Listening beyond the past - ...I have discovered that sometimes the reason why nothing seems to change in my life is that something is unresolved in my past. I find that I am carrying my past with me into the future. and so I've learned to spend time taking stock of the past, acknowledging what happened, and looking to see what I need to do to bring it to completion. Sometimes being complete is as simple as saying so. Other times I write about issues in my journal or I contact by letter, phone, or in person those with whom I am incomplete. This opens a fresh, clean place for creating."
"Our capacity to move beyond the past was demonstrated beautifully to me when I was in Cape Town, South Africa, attending the Parliament of the World's Religions. A black taxi driver told me that ten years ago he would not have been allowed to drive. Now he can drive and even own his own car. He talked about his four children who are all in school. he told me he was so happy they are learning English, which was not allowed to be taught to blacks during apartheid. He acknowledged the problems and yet was hopeful for the future. The past was not dominating his thinking."
"May we all start a new day complete with the past, so we will be free to create our future in peace and harmony with all that is."
May it be so.