Ann: I was wrong. What do I do with that epiphany? Jesus, can you help me here?
Jesus: Being wrong is the beginning, the beginning of a smile that unites the heart with the mind with the body. What a relief! No longer are you held to a standard of perfection by your own internal prison guards. Now you can walk out into the common lands and make peace with those whom you have wronged. Then the light creeps back into that dark room of your own making.
In general, all will be relieved, for everyone has been wrong, reacted defensively, aggressively or defiantly, and that is a sure sign of danger. Of course, everyone has good reasons for the way they react – and that is just the point. Everyone. Has. Reasons.
Let us go back to the wisdom of our inspirational friend, Fred Rogers: "There is no hierarchy in souls." Take this into your heart and hold it close. When you react, remember that the reasons don’t matter, it is the effect on yourself and the other that will have to be addressed before healing, if it is claimed, can occur.
So go about taking the steps that will allow that to happen. Don’t just go into a corner and determine to do better next time. Take affirmative steps for the healing of your own soul and that of those who were partners in whatever conflagration created the wrong turn.
For that is all doing wrong is, a wrong turn of the heart which can only be cured by turning around. Even when the consequences are seemingly set in stone, when hearts are eased, the road, however perilous, becomes easier, for, as the little prince in St. Exupery's beautiful book learned,* it is only with the heart that the eye sees rightly.
Here is the root of holy expansion. "I was wrong, I am not the repository of all knowledge, and other hearts hurt just as much as mine." Here we have another step on the journey home where all sides of you are known so you do not need to apologize because you come with an honest heart on the road to claiming love not just for yourself but for all who come into your presence.
I hear you ask about the deliberately obtuse amongst us, those who have no inclination for self-reflection but feed their insatiable egos with domination over others. To these you must proffer exactly the same offering, the offering of the truth of your own soul.
And if it is not received, you at least with depart with a lighter heart and the knowledge that each of us must tend our own garden.
August 14, 2021