An opportunity to be like God.

I have a few thoughts after the culmination of the Jewish New Year and the practice of asking God for forgiveness. In a perfect life, one would be so completely in the moment that all acts and thoughts of ill, greed and other assorted malevolent behaviors would be caught and neutralized before any damage was done. That is certainly something to aspire to, but in the interim honest objective self-reflection and acknowledgment of our thoughts and actions is all that we have. So digging deeply, feeling the empathy and truly asking for forgiveness is a very positive process. But it is only half of our responsibility.

The second part is the absolute necessity for us to forgive. Holding, feeling and reacting to the ills directed at you not only keeps them alive, it nurtures them and allows them to consume you.  One of my favorite Buddhist sayings is "Hatred is like a hot coal, the longer you hold onto it the more intensely you are burned" -I actually want to get that tattooed to the inside of my forearm so I will remember to live it, but that is a post for a different day.

Forgiving is about asking for something, forgiveness is about giving something away. All religions ask of God. Here is an opportunity to be like God, all you have to do is forgive.