Words from the Heart

Asking For Forgiveness (Photo credit: hang_in_there ) In the last post, my guest blogger, Margaret Norton, began a dialogue on the Gift of Forgiveness.  Since that post, several people have emailed me to say, "How can I forgive?"  "Why forgive? They only keep hurting me."  "If someone hurts someone else that I love, they hurt me, too.  But, it's not my job to forgive them." To these readers and others of like mind, allow me to repeat a truth that I can testify to wholeheartedly - Forgiveness is the greatest gift you give yourself!  What does this mean?  The gift you give yourself when you forgive someone, is the ability to go through life without carrying around a bundle of hate, despair, fear, outrage, anger, disappointment and so on.  An old wise man once asked me if I would carry around a bag of excrement.  I, not surprisingly, was appalled!  "Of course not!" I stated most vehemently.  "That is totally disgusting!" "We...

Every human has heroes. These are the beings we look up to, we emulate, we forget are human. I have several heroes. My parents are heroes. They have struggled with poverty, disease, addiction, and a host of other obstacles throughout their lives. Growing up was hard, but hindsight being 20/20, I have come to realized that they gave me so much! It is through my mother that I came to know and love writing, art, theater, music. Four generations: Me, my daughter, granddaughter and my Mom It is through my father that I learned to create something from nothing. My Dad Both my Mom and Dad helped me see that no matter how little I had, there was always enough to share with others who were worse off than myself. His Holiness the Dali Lama is another hero. His gentle manner, true humility and extreme compassion are inspirational to me. This is the official website for His Holiness: http://www.tibet.com/DL/index.html It tells his incredible story and has many great links to Tibetan history. ...