Resentment

Hola mi Gente,

I’m on vacation and I hope everyone is having a great summer. I don’t blog anywhere near as much as I used to, so I’m wondering if anyone is going to read this -- something along the lines of if the Zen koan, “if a tree falls in the woods, does anyone hear it” kinda sorta thing. Anyway, I came across while looking through some old notes and I thought I’d share.

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Resentment and Forgiveness

We forgive not as an act we perform for others, but rather something we do for ourselves in order to move on and grow.

            Imagine someone calls you an self-centered asshole. Immediately, you start thinking. How dare they call me a self-centered asshole? They have no right to call me a self-centered asshole! How rude to call me a self-centered asshole! I’ll get them back for calling me a self-centered asshole. And then you suddenly realize (if you’re awake even a little) that you have allowed them to call you a self-centered asshole another four times.

            Let me wait a second to see if this sinks in... got it? Okay.

            Every time you remember what they said, you are reliving -- allowing them -- to call you a self-centered asshole yet again and that’s a major problem.

            If someone calls you a self-centered asshole and you let it go (sooner rather than later), then it ceases to bother you. There is the solution.

            The issue here being why allow someone to live rent-free inside your head? Why allow other people to control your inner happiness?

            My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization...