In Which Mrs. Ditter Admits She is a Deeply Flawed Person

But you knew that already. And so here we go with the second in our line-up of forgiveness tactics and practices. Today's first comment comes from janeannechovy:
I've always thought that forgiveness really is the same thing as repentance. If you don't want to hold on to all your old mistakes, why would you want to hold onto someone else's? It's all just baggage that weighs you down.
This is, of course, true and brilliant and wise. But sometimes my baggage seems to be permanently attached to my body, no matter how hard I try to leave it behind. And so I struggle to translate the truth of "Leave your emotional baggage at the celestial curb" into actual practice. However, janeannechovy's comment is going up on a wall in this house! It's a great reminder of the importance of staying in the present moment.

For those of you who are as wackadoo as me, here is a terrific breathing meditation. It comes from Julie:

Imagine your anger (or fear, pain, sickness) in the form of thick black smoke. With your imagination, collect all the thick black smoke in your lungs (at times, it may seem to be coming from your head or a place of tension or injury in your body). On your next exhale, imagine the smoke leaving your body, whooshing out through your nose. Picture it going far out into space where it can't bother anyone else. Continue this until all the smoke has left your body. Some days, this takes longer than others...!
You can add a second step: On the inhalation, imagine that you are breathing in pure, white light, which carries with it peace, inspiration and healing.

I love this technique. I've used it already and am going to add it to my grab-bag of Instant Calming Techniques (yes, there is an actual list of things I do to calm down. Leave me a comment if you'd like me to email it to you). Thanks, Julie. Also, you people who are NOT Julie may want to check out her blog at www.fromthecapricornsgarden.blogspot.com. Excellent, thoughtful writing and for those of us who are raising kids/teenagers, some funny stuff.

Thanks for reading.