“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Mahatma Gandhi
Daily DIVO-tional...
When a tree is young, a sapling, it is pliable and adaptable. It can easily move and recover from elements and forces applied to it. As the tree ages, it builds up adaptations to chronic forces and demands imposed upon it. These adaptations are specific and a means of survival. However, as the environment changes as a result of acute event or gradual alteration, the exposure to new forces and elements can and will happen. Only those that can release the rigidity, that yield, forgive, will continue to thrive. Those that do not bend, BREAK! If only the strong survive, then forgiveness and flexibility are attributes that belong to them. Metaphor is the great art of nature. Although humans may not be exposed to actual elements in the same way trees are, they do undergo exposure, in simile and analogy, to human forces, emotions and experiences. Adaptation occurs much the same. In spite of adapting physical nature to its needs, human nature is not separate from nature and takes much of its cues in conditioning from there, whether man knows it or not. All this to express: those that go through tough things in the emotional climate of youth will build up a resilience to it for survival. However, those that cannot forgive that rigidity or the things and events that put them in place, then the likelihood or thriving is significantly lessened if not completely extinguished as things change into adulthood and new forces, emotional or otherwise, are applied. If Strength is survival, only those that can adapt are strong enough to progress. Those who cannot forgive, cannot release, cannot yield, will eventually meet their match in forces and be broken. No one can know when that is, but why live a life so stiff, why not regain that youthful vigor and mindset where things are not taken so seriously? Those that are truly strong can integrate those forces they were exposed to and work in synergy with new forces experienced to thrive in the environment to which they currently express and find themselves.
On this day, I will honestly look at those spaces and places that I am rigid and those that I retain flexibility, and compassionately envision the integration of the two! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼