Forgiving doesn’t erase the bitter past.
A healed memory is not a deleted memory.
Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember.
We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.
– Lewis Smedes
Forgiveness. It’s tough to seek out and it is sometimes tough to give. I still have events in my life that I ruminate about and wish I could erase, do over, rewind. The are stuck there.
That’s why I love this quote. Forgiveness doesn’t have to erase what happened. In fact, it doesn’t. But this notion that something new is created from forgiveness, a new way to remember… that’s genius.
I wanted to capture that genius in my illustration of this quote, because I want a tangible reminder that in order to forgive, I don’t need to erase anything. I just need to allow that memory to be transformed into something new. Something that can facilitate my own personal growth. Something I do for me.
The grey dense ball of *stuck-ness* is the memory that is wounded.
But look what our infinitely adaptable and growing, expansive minds can do!
Reaching out from new directions, forming new neuronal connections, re-working its way in an ever winding and changing path towards love, our mind can hold a safe space for what we’ve been through while we process, heal… transform.
If our minds are open and reaching towards love, we can change anything into hope for our future.
Even the unforgivable becomes a path for transformation.
It doesn’t need to disappear, we don’t need to travel back in time to change events… we just need to embrace what is. Allow it to stay. Welcome it into our experience, and keep moving on towards love.
Even creating these quote splats has been like that for me. Tearing out the pages from my old med school anatomy lab books… replacing all of that static information, linear thinking, closed-minded naming and labeling of our bodies with layers of paint, doodles, color… potential… it’s just been so amazing for me to re-work those old diagrams and discover how to create art out of the cold nitty gritty memories I have from human dissection. I remember thinking… there must be more than what we see here, there just must be. And there is! There is. And it feels good to liberate that on paper.
I’ve also really been enjoying giving away the past four Quote Splats. If this quote or illustration resonates with any of you, let me know and I’ll send this one along too! xoxo
Nothing stops love!!!!!
