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"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future." Paul Boese.
For not wiping the counters last night, I forgive you. I forgive you for letting the pot boil over, and not noticing Roomba is off his charger. When preparing healthy meals becomes tedious instead of a pleasure, scraps of this and that, ubiquitous dirty dishes, I forgive you for eating a pretzel bar, and then succumbing to hapless entertainment after a day of wearying chores, not remembering your good fortunes others only dream of. I forgive you for choosing the privileged response over gratitude, for wanting more, or wanting less, for being the first to smell the garbage and the last to smell the flowers, I forgive you. When you misplace your phone enroute your daily micro journeys, personal space to communal living, business as usual, multiple loops, life’s cycles //:repeat:// I forgive that you panic before you reason. I forgive that you momentarily look over your shoulder to see if mental fragility is gaining on you. I forgive you for wanting to please, for responding with a thoughtless “Yes!” rather than forming a thoughtful “No, thank you”, I forgive you. For wanting to tell people how to live, for allowing “you should” to enter your mind and leave your mouth, I forgive you. For not always being present, for forgetting to focus with care and concern, for starting another paragraph before responding to yours, for asking personal questions that are nobody’s business, I forgive you. Forgiveness is taking a breath, relaxing the eye sockets, unhinging the jaw, opening the throat lifting the shoulder blades and rotating them back, encouraging the scapulae to kiss, lifting the torso, making room for the heart expanding the spine, accepting skin, belly, and thighs without rebuke, reconnecting with Mother Earth, and just beginning again. For caring more about doing than being, For allowing life’s imperfections detract from life’s precious moments never to be repeated, I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you.
Said with tears, "Thank you. I needed the reminder today."
We all need the reminder. Its mire than just putting on your own oxygen mask first. It's caring for ourselves as if we were a precious child.