Spring is here, we are anxiously awaiting warmer weather, longer days, beautiful flowers, sunshine, and the joy of spending time outdoors. As the Spring season becomes more apparent, we seem to have an innate desire to clean up the debris winter has left behind. My own yard and flower beds are beckoning me to do some loving clean up and prepare the soil for new growths.
I want to invite you to take your spring cleaning a little deeper this year by releasing and letting go of the old beliefs that hold you back from being the best version of yourself. Just like our garage collects cobwebs and the yard creates weeds, so do we. Those cobwebs hold us back from experiencing more joy in our daily lives. Some of those cobwebs in our minds may come in the form of outdated negative thoughts that hold us back. I want to invite you to specifically see what hurts and resentments you have been holding on to. Some of them may have become part of your daily thinking and feeling and you have become comfortable with them but as you look more deeply into them you may notice that they are not allowing yourself to experience fresh clean joy, just like what Spring brings to us.
I decided at the end of last year to embrace the book A Course in Miracles to dive deeper into the real meaning of life. In reading the daily lessons, I am beginning to understand that the true meaning of life is to learn to love ourselves and others at a deeper level. Also, the lessons in the book explain that the only way to achieve deeper love is through forgiveness. For many years, I wanted to believe that I was a very forgiving person, but I must admit that I have been holding on to resentment with certain people and situations. I have struggled to let go. I am beginning to recognize that as long as I don’t forgive and release the past, I will not be able to experience inner peace the way God intended for me to experience it.
I am also learning that God will never interfere with my choices. He gave us the gift of life and the gift of choice. He quietly allows us to make our own choices and many of them create grief, pain, and suffering for us and then we beg Him to release us from our suffering.
Our mind is our internal garden. You will know that if you don't pay attention on a regular basis to your garden, weeds will grow fast, taking the beauty of your garden away. The same thing happens to the internal world of your mind. Negative thoughts and past experiences will take over the most precious life moments that could take our breath away.
I am learning to forgive myself for the things I did, or did not do, and for my trespasses that hurt others and myself. I am learning to release people’s behaviors that brought pain and suffering to me and those around me. I often remind myself that I did the best I could with what I had and what I knew. I keep working on increasing my awareness of how my choices impact me and the people I love. They say we can’t go back to fix the past, but forgiveness can certainly bring more inner peace in the present.
I am ready to embrace Spring in all its glory, more than anything I want to harvest inner peace, and no one can do that for me except myself. I desire the same for you, we all deserve to experience a life filled with joy and inner peace.
HAPPY Spring!