Forgiveness

One of the things I am personally working on for Lent and the rest of my life, really, is
forgiveness.

The Lord's Prayer has a line in it that works wonders for me. "...perdona nuestras ofensas
como tambien nosotros perdonamos a los que nos ofenden." As soon as I say this line
in church, the anger disappears. That is why I have purposefully not attended church, at times,
because I was not ready for the anger to go away.

Sick! Who would choose to be angry?

The priest had a sermon some time ago that made me laugh. He said, "Unos me dicen que no
perdonan porque no les 'nace.' No les nace? Perdonar es una decision."
It was not appropriate that I laughed right then and there, but the lightbulb went on in my
head.

(Why the intermingled Spanish? Because religion/spirituality for me is in Spanish. I've tried
to focus on English in this department, doesn't work. I feel like I am in class and should have
a notebook and pen in order to prepare for a quiz. Go figure.)

Two observations:
1) On some occasions I may not actually forgive people, I just forget what it was that
caused problems to begin with. This is not forgiveness. I know that. But the bitterness
is gone so in some ways it could be the same as forgiveness. ;)

2) Forgiveness does not guarantee that I (or the person forgiving me) want things to go
back to normal. People expect things to go back to 'how it used to be.' That does not
happen no matter how hard people try, unless people forget. (see #1)

FYI: I'm not an angry person. Shit just happens in this ride called Life.