I’ve just sat down after my first toilet break on the 11 hour plane journey to Cancun (perhaps too much information, perhaps not enough?? @shindy). In there, I was taking time to reflect on the happenings so far, and I’m already thankful for one way in which my departure has benefited those I love.

So both my parents wanted to send me off at the airport, and until this morning my Mum and Dad have barely spoken a word to one another for over 12 years now… and have only been at the same place at the same time once before in all these years... I wondered whether they would ever see each other again, let alone be able to hold a pleasant and civilized conversation together!

But this morning, that happened. For me, this felt like the beginning of a new chater in this story too, as for so long the narrative seemed to be circling round and round.. if anything spiraling downwards.… and now… a change of direction. Although I do not expect my Mum and Dad to be best friends again any time soon… I hope that through being forced to come together so that they could both see their son off to the airport will not only serve to break a very thick sheet of ice that had formed over the years, but also pave the way for it to become a more regular occurrence…

Who knows… I might even get married one day… so by that point, I hope they will be well practiced in all this ‘being civilized’ business.

It’s important to find forgiveness for the ones you love in life when they hurt you. Otherwise, your own resentment will poison you for many years to come.

Through forgiveness we may liberate ourselves from the torture and suffering of the ‘victim’ mentality. Forgiveness is the natural antidote to hurt and suffering… For when we forgive, we can no longer feel wounded by the actions of another, for we recognize their flaws, their imperfect humanness, their potential to ‘get things wrong’, and we recognize that we too have the same capacity to make mistakes and require forgiveness from others.

We say ‘I do not necessarily need to understand what happened and what lead to the choices you made in order for me to accept ‘what is', bless it and forgive you."

Forgiving does not mean that you agree with or condone the actions of another that may have hurt you. It does not mean you now have to resume your relationship where you left off, as if nothing has ever happened. It doesn’t mean that all of a sudden, what was once ‘wrong’ has now become ‘right’.

It purely means that you have reached into the depths of your innate and infinite compassion as a human being and found the strength, courage and wisdom to know that it is now time to let go of what happened to you in the past. It’s time to relinquish the control that your stories have upon your life. It’s time to move forward without carrying that unnecessary emotional baggage around with you that’s been weighing you down for so long.

When we forgive, it does not mean that we forget. More often than not, we will remember that which needed forgiving for many years. Yet although we may remember it, it does not mean that we ‘hold on’ to it and let it have hold any weight in our consciousness. Rather, we realise the damage that ‘holding on’ has been doing all this time… and when we realise this… the most natural choice becomes simply to let go.

For letting go of the past presents much less of a painful struggle than holding on as you trudge into the future.. though so often we fail to recognize this fact...

So always remember to just…

Let...

It………

Go…………

And you’ll be free to go with the flow and continue to grow.

Above ^^ - Me, Me Mum and Me Dad.. all together in the same pic! Never thought it would happen again! So thankful <3