Slow Start, huh?

It's not like I'd forgotten about my blog really. It's just that there's a bit of a perfectionist streak in me who wanted to get it all looking great from the get go, but the reality is sinking in slowly, this will be a learning experience that will take some time and one that I want to enjoy the of process anyway.

So a little bit of blogging at a time instead of fluffing around trying to do everything and ending up doing nothing.

I want to share a little about a book I'm reading. I picked it off the library shelf and had one of those moments where I knew this book was important and I had picked it up for a reason. Does anyone else have those moments I wonder? The book is called Everything Happens for a Reason by Mira Kirshenbaum. It's about finding the true meaning of the events in our lives. Now I've been through some truly awful times, like most people, and have had trouble thinking why would God allow this to happen to me? Those events hurt so bad that it is hard to see how any good could come out of them. This book is speaking to my soul and giving me a new perspective and for that I'm very thankful.

Kirshenbaum found there were only ten answers to the meaning of why things happen. There are diagnostic questions to see if an answer applies to you, but I have gotten something from each meaning, even though they are not the meanings for the events in my life. Here's a little snippet from Chapter four about bringing you to the place where you can feel forgiveness.

"No one intends to be unforgiving. In our society it's more something we feel we "cant' help" than something we're proud of. But that's the point. It really does seem like something we can't help. We're just stuck with it, like someone with an abscessed tooth and no dentist to provide relief. But don't imagine only how painful that would be. Imagine how you wouldn't be able to live a normal life with such a toothache. That's what happens when we're stuck unable to forgive someone else or when we can't forgive ourselves.

We see this every time we open the newspapers these days. Almost every troubled part of the world is a place where violence feeds on unforgiveness. The cycle of violence is utterly dependent on the inability to forgive. Our world is deformed by unforgivess."

My reason for my life events isn't about forgiveness, but this really got me thinking. Such a big topic that I had never really thought about before. It's something we can all relate to in one way or another. Lots to ponder with this book. Highly recommend it.