Courage, compassion, and connectivity with being vulnerable and forgiving.

We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.
--Thich Nhat Hanh

We are all in this together. Now take for instance my situation with my pbff. She left not out of love. She left because she didn't get the secret to life. Our connectedness. Her family didn't understand it, they were working under the pretense of protection and not vulnerability. I was working under hurt and reactions. However, I have learned that I have to be vulnerable and tell my story and have empathy and courage to connect with others.

I had to decide that I will not leave a legacy of hate towards them or my ex. The jerks. Just kidding. In all honesty, I want more for my kids. I want them to learn what I wasn't able to earlier. Love more those who hurt you, love more those who are hard. Have compassion and forgiveness beyond measure. Do good to those that hate you. Pray for those that despitefully use you. Easier than said when sometimes you want to tell those people who have hurt you to get a frickin clue. That's the honest part. But it's not the right part.

The freedom to choose your spirit despite your circumstance. You can choose to love more those who have hurt you, or you can choose to ignore, or you can choose to be angry and upset. You choose your spirit. Some people that come to mind are Nelson Mandela after robben island, Victor Frankl after the concentration camps. They chose their spirit. They were courageous, vulnerable, and moving the world to a better place.

Forgiveness is the ability to let go the suffering, the sorrows, the burden, the pain, the humiliation, the damage, the hurt, and betrayals of the past and instead choose the higher law of love. I often wonder if my pbff and her family would have come to us and said we love you, we care about you, we are here for you, we want to help and be empathetic, what the difference would have made. I wonder how different it might have looked if I would have been vulnerable enough and shared what was really going on and had the courage to expose my feelings and loved more and not reacted. 

But I am choosing to do so now. I am choosing my spirit to love them more despite hurt that is still in our paths. I want my children to learn forgiveness and love through being able to be vulnerable, finding the courage to love, have compassion, and connect with others. 

“If you want to see the brave, look at those who can forgive. If you want to see the heroic, look at those who can love in return for hatred.”

― Krishna Dharma