Letters Home: Section 1, Letter dated December 13

December 13
Katrina,



Forgiveness, Sister, is a complex web made of emotions, various people holding a corner and sending requests along sticky wires, survival depending on the connections it makes.



At the top of the web is God, the first name we speak when trouble we begin to sense. Yet, he has no physical voice that we hear, no box to emit sound to reassure us that we are forgiven. No, that requires faith; and faith is a dimly lit candle for someone who lives in the House of Doubt. And, only through God can we ask for forgiveness from certain souls with slates upon which we wrote negativity, the souls we never knew, never saw, the souls connected to the souls connected to the souls connected to the souls owning the slates we inscribed upon directly. With time, however, and hope, angels will speak words of encouragement until a heart will open, faith will come, and forgiveness shall follow. But, God is not the only person we need ask forgiveness.



We must be open to forgiving ourselves, to allow ourselves to admit to failures, to allow our hearts to remain open and to carry on, taking our lives into the future instead of forcing them to live in the darkness of the past cemented in time. For, forgiveness from all of the forces in the world combined can never equal the devastation that one can do to their soul by never forgiving the self of the past.



And, all of the souls who have wronged each other, writing upon the slates of others, intended or not, harsh words and cruelty, directions of darkness, heartbreak and ignorance; those who have written slates that have encouraged others to live lives of betrayal and loneliness, despair and grief need all request of each other a forgiving heart; and that is a request which can only be truly made when change is occurring, when the light begins to shine more brightly in what had once been a dimmed heart. And, what of the souls who have already passed through this world and into death, the souls from whom we need to ask forgiveness? Well, I do not know. Katrina? Does the secret rest in whether or not we are able to forgive ourselves, forgive and move on?



There are people who believe that they must only ask forgiveness of God, that the forgiveness of any other mortal is unimportant and unnecessary, that God’s forgiveness is certain, and that the action being forgiven should never be brought up again. But, one requires the human component for healing to occur, one needs the experience of speaking the words, the power of hearing the words, of allowing opportunity for change.




Forever,
Christina






This work is fictional. Any resemblance to actual situations or persons, living or dead, is coincidental and unintentional.