forgiveness

This morning I said aloud to someone else "Liz makes bad life decisions." For fifteen seconds that statement hung above my head and then gravity swiftly pulled it down over my face. I began to suffocate the sadness of those spoken words. I wanted to cry for the person who would think that about herself.

As I lifted the blanket of that statement away I realized that 'Liz has made some bad life decisions.' After all, I'm human, and we humans have a propensity for bad judgement - which leads to mistakes, which teach the lessons that give us experience that ultimately leads to wisdom and good judgement. So maybe I'm just the most experienced 36 year old ever, then, and still waiting on the wisdom and good judgment part.

It's appropriate for this to come up on the day of Maya Angelou's death. One of the prayers of forgiveness I often speak to myself is comprised of her words: You did then what you knew how to do, And when you knew better, you did better.

There will always be mistakes. There will always be learning and growing. To be human is to make mistakes, have experiences, learn and make more mistakes. 

I forgive myself for the mistakes I have made.