The one where I learned to forgive

It sounds like a cliche. It feels like a cliche. I actually feel like one of those overly do-gooders who has found the way and the light and knows how to live their life all because they saw that pink pebble, on the beach, shaped like the virgin Mary. My pink pebble, on the beach, shaped like the Virgin Mary was actually a lady on Oprah. The lady’s name …. Louise Hay. Some know Louise as an inspirational speaker. Others know Louise as a spunky old woman who knows no limits. I know Louise as the woman who, with one single sentence, took my anger away and replaced it with forgiveness.

Several posts ago I wrote of an old friend who turned out to be a backstabbing creep. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is the fact that I now understand that my overly-brilliant husband and I have something that we’re intended to do that is so much bigger and more powerful than the business he helped build over the last three years. We’re the type of people that stick things out though. If we start something, we finish it … no matter what. That’s what pained us (especially my husband) so much when we began thinking about leaving his company. There’s no way that he would have left unless our “friend” completely turned on him … which is what happened. But back to Oprah….

So, Oprah had a guest on that spoke about the way she celebrated when her husband was fired from his job. Initially, she was frightened as most people would be. How will the bills get paid? What if he can’t find another job? She caught herself, took a deep breath and decided to celebrate. She knew her husband was not exactly happy with that old job. He deserved better and she knew it. That’s when Louise spoke up and said “Well don’t you see. Your husband wasn’t about to leave his job so the Universe had to take it away from him in order to FORCE him to do something bigger.” Those weren’t her exact words but you get it. Anyway, that sentiment slapped me upside the head like a 70 mile per hour baseball pitch. The Universe used the only thing it could to get us away from that soul-sucking business we were so attached to. Our “friend.” When our “friend” turned his back on my husband time and time again, repeating the mantra “F*^& you” (again paraphrasing) at every turn, the last strand of loyalty my husband had to anything associated with that business dissolved into the ether. Only then was he able to stand up and pronounce what a waste of time that business had become.

If you’ve ever watched “My Name is Earl” there was an episode where Randy made a very uncanny revelation. Earl was feeling bad about punching someone and Randy said “But Earl, Karma doesn’t have fists.” So much paraphrasing in this post. What Randy meant was that Karma wanted to punch that person and had to use Earl to do it. Same thing here, I believe. The Universe had to use our friend in a less that human capacity to get our attention. That doesn’t make his actions right or fair or justified … but it helped us get our scoot on! Upon making this realization, all my anger, resentment and feeling of being “forced” to make the decision to move on dissolved. I no longer loathe either of the two remaining partners. Can’t say I’ll ever speak to them again either … but I’ve separated myself from my anger. Good luck remaining partners. I hope you do make the millions you claim to be capable of!  I really, truly do!

This entry was posted on Sat, Jun 14 2008 at 17:35 and is filed under Vanessa's Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.