Forgive the dear one before it’s too late

rain falling reflecting on a deathAn adult daughter listens to the tune one of her mother’s funeral songs played by the radio station. She watched the rain gently patter against the flat window pane of her solitary room, the room where she and her mom used to play patty-cakes and dolls when she was a toddler. As her memories of her mom visited her, she felt the chill of the cool spring rain seep deeper into her skin. Tears began to fall from her eyes as she counted in her mind how many years they were locked into a cold war since the beginning of their unresolved conflict. Her heart aches, begging to rewind at least on last minute so she can tell her mother how much she loves her before she passed away.

This is just one of the many common scenarios of how much pain an unforgiving heart can cause someone. Such a scenario can happen to anyone who has a bad blood with beloved ones. This should not have to be your scenario after your loved ones pass away. It is therefore very important to patch up damaged relationships with beloved people, especially close relatives like parents and elders. Their naturally-ordained death should not be a cause of your great misery, the kind of misery you will have to carry for the rest of your life. Forgiveness teaches us of how fragile humanity is, and death itself holds the ultimate verdict of the way we live. Of all the virtues being taught in various moral and spiritual schools of thought, forgiveness proves itself to be the most difficult to perform.

It is important to remember that while the death of a loved one is something out of our control, decisions like forgiveness is always a choice. Nobody chooses loved ones to die. But one can always choose how we treat our loved ones in this world. People who had no grudges or misgivings with the one their hearts hold dear find it easy to deal with the beloved person’s death. They have no difficulty regarding how to write eulogy and make it an inspiring message to all those who share that love to the same deceased person. A forgiving heart is a heart that is free of misery and pain. Everyone deserves to have this kind of grace in their lives.