Today, I am filled with Spirit--and so are you

Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash

Today I woke, and my mind was flooded with Ideas. So many things to write about. So many things to be grateful for. So many things to forgive (not in the usual meaning of the word.)

So many things to write about

Let this be my list of posts that I imagine writing, not necessarily in order:

• This one

• God from First Principles

• “Mike’s Life” A moviewise style review

• Seeing Trump through the eyes of Love

• Who I was, who I am, who I will be

• Forgiveness (redux)

• An open letter to my grandchildren

• I know my mind

• You are filled with Spirit

• Etc

So many things to be grateful for

Whoever you are, I am grateful that you are reading this.

“Me?” I imagine an imaginary reader saying. “Why are you grateful I am reading it? You don’t even know me? And how can you be grateful that I _am_ reading it. You haven’t even published it?”

“I know my mind,” I imagine answering, and add “I know my mind” to the list of things to write about. “And I am grateful,” I continue to imagine myself replying. “I don’t know how it can be. I just know that it is.”

“Weird,” I imagine another imaginary reader saying.

“I’m grateful that you’ve written this,” I imagine another saying.

So many things to forgive

The usual meaning of forgiveness is something like this:

“You have done a bad thing. There is no question that you deserve punishment. Or retribution. Or rebuke, at the very least.

“But I, because I stand in judgment (which puts me above you), and because I am merciful (which also puts me above you), and though I do not deign to take action. To be clear: “to deign” is to take action is to “to condescend reluctantly and with a strong sense of the affront to one's superiority that is involved” to : stoop. To not deign means that the action is so far beneath me (because you are) that it’s too far to stoop.

“You are indebted to me, and rightfully so, for releasing you from the consequences of your wrongful act—this time.

“Your debt is cancelled, but not expunged from your credit report, where it will live to the end of time, never to be removed.

“Amen.”

Once that was my understanding of forgiveness.

Now it is different.

It is more like this:

“You did nothing that harmed me.”

And “It’s as if it never happened.”

And “It never happened.”

I could say a lot more about this. And I have.

The paradoxes of gratitude and forgiveness

And I have

Forgiveness and the War in Ukraine

And I have

Thank you, Past Me. Thank you random stranger

And I will.

Not just me, you too.

It’s not just me that’s filled with Spirit. You are too. You probably don’t notice it most of the time. And I’ve added that to the list of things to write about.

“Me?” I imagine an imaginary non-subscribing reader asking.

“Yes, you,” I imagine replying. “Or you can share it with the click of a button.” And to help them along, I add the button below.