Anyone who writes, or does anything creative for that matter, knows that it (whatever “it” is) starts somewhere inexplicable. The muse, some call it, or inspiration or spark of genius. You might just call it desperation. As in…“help me out here universe. I need an idea. Anything will do. Any little thing, even.”

And that is how it begins. At least for me. At least most of the time.

I sit down to write an essay or song or line of lyric without the whole of the idea fully formed. Just a little thing I have in mind. One stitch, you might say.

The beginning of a scarf or an afghan. The beginning of something larger. Which starts with that one stitch.

This is how it must be, of course.

Of course this is how it must be.

The first stitch is what the rest of the whole depends on. No first stitch? Then no anything larger.

The same might be said of forgiveness. Maybe.

I don’t know. I am still figuring that one out.

It’s kind of a hard one.

The problem with forgiveness, a very large percentage of the time, is that the person or persons who have wronged us very often do not feel that they have done so. Or do not care that they have done so. Or maybe do care that they have hurt us, but still believe that they were in the right.

Which is infuriating when you know that you were in the right.

I do believe that this all stems from that most human of conditions – humanness.

I, being quite a bit human, share this belief in my own “rightness”.

But I also know that saying to be true. You know. The one about forgiveness setting you free.

This is also, just the teensiest bit, infuriating.

It does, of course.

Of course it does.

But forgiveness, like that essay or that song or that scarf, doesn’t always spring forth fully formed, or on cue.

Much to my dismay.

Forgiveness doesn’t come all at once. At least for a lot of us a lot of the time.

Generally, it starts with one small thing. That thing being the desire to forgive, of course. As in…“help me out here universe. I need an idea. Anything will do. Any little thing, even.”

And it usually is just a little thing. One stitch, you might say.“To forgive is to set a prisoner free, and realize the prisoner was you.” (~Anonymous)

The beginning of the softening of a heart. The teensiest desire to forgive the person who’s done you wrong. The one tiny crack in the argument that you must win the argument.

One stitch.

This is how it must be, of course.

Of course this is how it must be.

The first stitch is what the rest of the whole depends on.

~xo,
LuAnne

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“To forgive is to set a prisoner free, and realize the prisoner was you.” (~Anonymous)