Thank You….Peace…

Did you notice I went an extra week?  Oh Luanna, can you stop?  I can!  Maybe… I went an extra week because yesterday, the 15th of April, my husband and I started on a raft trip down the Grand Canyon. (two weeks with no internet access?!!)  It’s another challenge to complete!  That’s what blogging for a year was for me: a challenge.  Before I give you some closing thoughts I will tell you what my top 10 blogs were to this date.  It was really interesting to me; was survival as a topic important to you, was it story telling, identifying with my life?

10 & 9.  Tied were You Would Know Four Things About Mom and New Years Resolution. (self explanatory)

8.  If Not Us, If Not You, Then Who?  (Is it our responsibility to talk about our survival to help others?)

6 & 7.  Ties were Motivation? and When You See One, There Are More.  (Why do I feel it’s necessary to blog and my analogy of my abuse)

5.  Let’s Be Honest.  (my defense of others, including gays, and why we shouldn’t judge)

4.  Forgiveness, Slow But Sure.  (self-explanatory)

3.  Quilting Together The Past and Present.  (bringing my life together)

2.  Surviving Divorce.  (self-explanatory

1. It’s Not Your Fault. (overwhelming top read post)

Sometimes blogs are read weeks after they are published; people tend to binge read every once in a while, so a more recent blog might pick up a few additional readers.  It is validating to see the statistics.  It seems a variety of topics was appreciated.  I’m so grateful.

I encourage all of you to write, or video; challenge yourself.   Life is short.  If I can ever help, I will.  A couple of people have reached out to me and asked me to help them write, or get started.  I am so happy to do that, so thankful for the trust.

If you would do one thing for me, as Dave and I raft down the Grand Canyon, please include our safety in your prayers.  If you don’t like us, then forget you know what we are doing.  🙂

I may continue to blog periodically on wordpress.com.  I won’t be publishing on Facebook.  You can certainly follow me there and again if there is anything I can help you with, on your journey, you can always personal message me.

I can’t tell you without crying, what your support has meant to me this last year.  It has helped immensely with my healing.  I have forgiven my Dad and I choose to love the goodness in him.  Sometimes I have to look darn hard, but it’s there! There are some days I still struggle, but they are few and far between.  Thank you, thank you my friends for your support.

Peace….

(I have been asked how to follow my blog. If you go to the WordPress.com site, search lovingandsurviving.blog, you should find my blogs. There will be a place at the beginning or end, where it says, “follow”. I believe you will be asked to put in your e-mail address and then you will get one automatically when I write it.)

 

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Forgiveness is mine

Thanksgiving is coming up soon and it always gets me to thinking about what I’m truly thankful for:  This week I am thankful for forgiveness.

I’m not a perfect person as my children like to tell me regularly.  They tease me about my foibles, the eccentricities of their mother, and my outright mistakes.  (Only they are allowed to do this though, they would set anyone else straight who criticized me.) I have had to ask for their forgiveness and I am so thankful that they have given it to me.  I can’t imagine living with the guilt for the rest of my life, if they said, “No, we can’t forgive you, you are unforgiveable.”  Their father and I made mistakes in our marriage, ending it in divorce, and today respect each other and have given forgiveness.  Our children have benefitted from that and learned from it.  We are a family who believes in forgiveness.

I had coffee today with a classmate from my high school days.  We talked about forgiveness and how it correlates in today’s society.  I shared with her that it upsets me that our entire society seems to have a chip on their shoulder and is unable to give forgiveness.  What we have is a society of victims who can’t give forgiveness, choose not to move forward, and are unable to be healthy survivors.  Here I am on my high horse, I know.  There are wonderful examples of groups of peoples who were treated horribly in history and have moved on: the Italians, the Irish and the Chinese were treated as slaves, they mined and built our railroads receiving little or nothing for pay.  They were spit on, beat up and called names.   They are survivors.

When you act like a victim; people treat you like a victim; you are perceived as weak and unable to take care of yourself.  Look around you.  Some of you will think I am talking about a particular race, or culture, but I’m not.  You see victims everywhere, regardless of whatever stereotype you want to name.  I’m reading a book right now about coal miners in the Appalachians who were treated horribly..  Many moved on and survived; many didn’t.

I understand forgiveness, because I have had to ask for it and I have given it; both are tough. Forgiveness doesn’t mean you forget, as my children example shows, but forgiveness means you get peace.  The negative energy it takes to not forgive, becomes positive energy, you get to move forward.

My Dad is in assisted living and I stopped up an visited with him the other night for an hour or so.  When I left, I said, “Dad, I’m going to be gone for a couple of weeks, but will see you when I get back.  He said, “Ok, well I will miss you.”  “I love you Dad.”  “I love you too Wanny.”  Our family knows forgiveness.  I know forgiveness.  I wish it for you, with all of my heart.

Peace….