Saturday, November 30, 2013

Gary Renard on Forgiveness

 
Gary Renard is one of the easiest to understand A Course in Miracles teachers.  This 14 minute video explains the Course view on forgiveness.  If you have not been exposed to Course teachings before, hold onto your hat!  Gary jumps into the kind of deep metaphysical thought that take most students years to understand.  Gary always leaves me wanting more!! More knowledge, more understanding, more application of what I know to be the truth in my life. 

For practical and easy tips on how to apply forgiveness to our daily lives:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/forgiveness-is-the-key-to-happiness-Sue-Pipal?store=allproducts&keyword=forgiveness+is+the+key+to+happiness++Sue+Pipal

Thursday, November 28, 2013

My Table is Set and Ready

Come join me at my table.  This is a table of gratitude for all that God makes ours.  We give thanks that God loves us infinitely. We give thanks for the beauty and abundance we experience in this world. Thank you God for the love that surrounds us and the joy and peace that is ours whenever we choose to join with you. 

As an expression of our thankfulness, we in turn, love our brothers.  We release all judgments and we accept everything in this world.  All is forgiven.  We choose to live in love.  And on this day of gratitude we say our Thanksgivings!

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

I Raise You and I Praise You

An easy forgiveness exercise for situations where it is easy to forgive...

                                                             I Raise You and I Praise You
                                                       I Raise You and I Praise You
                                                 I Raise You and I Praise You
                                           I Raise You and I Praise You
                                    I Raise You and I Praise You
                             I Raise You and I Praise You
                       I Raise You and I Praise You
                I Raise You and I Praise You
          I Raise You and I Praise You
    I Raise You and I Praise You


 
As you think these words, visualize the person you want to forgive floating upward to the light.  Keep saying the words in your mind until you really feel that the person is raised to the highest place, is filled with light and in the presence of God.  Bless them with your love.
 
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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Forgiveness is Replacing Judgment with Love

Forgiveness is actually very easy to do.  However, in order to do it easily, you have to change the way you think about this world.

Forgiveness is replacing judgment with love.  It is recognizing that God never judges anyone, ever.  He loves each one of his creations.  After all, he created every one of us in his own image.  We are exactly like him.  And since he is complete and pure love he sees us through eyes of love. 

God is the strength in which I trust.
"It is not my own strength through which I forgive.  It is through the strength of God in me, which I am remembering as I forgive.  As I begin to see, I recognize His reflection on earth.  I forgive all things because I feel the stirring of His strength in me.  And I begin to remember the Love I chose to forget, but which has not forgotten me."   --A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 60

In forgiveness, we look at our adversaries with God's eyes.  We drop our judgments and we see others in their truth.  They are exactly what we are, pure spirit, complete love.

"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you"--C.S. Lewis


Of course, it is absolutely true that in this "dream world" people do things to us that are destructive to our well being and this can often be painful.  However, we need to realize that people only do these things out of their own ignorance.  They do not remember who they really are.  They don't remember that they are actually perfect loving whole spiritual beings, created by God out of only love.  They come here and they forget.  They lose sight of the big picture. They become blinded by their ego minds and all the things the grasping ego demands for them.  They forget their real truth.

Remember also that many people simply don't look to see love in the world around them.  It just doesn't occur to them to do so.  They may have been mistreated or disrespected.  Perhaps they've never been shown what love really looks like. They don't know any better.  That doesn't make what they do less destructive in our lives, but perhaps it makes it easier to see the world from their perspective. 

That's OK.  Let them be what they are and do what they will...for now.  Recognize the fact that they are a little behind us on the path to God.  They're not awakened yet. 

But you, however, you are starting to wake up.  It's your forgiveness job to look past the dream actions others take in this dream world and to see beyond to their truth.  Raise them up in your mind.  Release them and let them go.  Forgive them and as you forgive, over time a backwash of love will seep into your life.  Forgiving others is actually the road to forgiving yourself.   And self forgiveness leads to inner peace. 

"Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world.  Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to your memory.  Therefore, in your forgiveness lies your salvation." --  A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 62
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"Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness" by Sue Pipal is available at: 

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Sunday, November 24, 2013

Happy Leaping Greenly Spirits

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.  --e. e. Cummings

A Course of Miracles promises that the more you forgive, the happier your life will be.  In fact,  over time, as you begin to forgive everyone and every difficult event or circumstance in the world around you, you will actually begin to live what the Course calls the "happy dream".   

Forgiveness is much easier than you may think.  In fact, once you get in the habit, it actually becomes pleasurable.  There's really no reason to live a life of fear, anxiety, upset or lack when the possibility of the "happy dream" life is such an easy alternative.  It doesn't happen over night, of course, but a few years of significant forgiveness work will improve your life immeasurably. 

So...what are you waiting for? 


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"Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness" is available in both hardcover and paperback at:

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For an ebook go to:

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Saturday, November 23, 2013

Are You are Holding Yourself Back?

Why Forgive?

You may be wondering why forgiveness is so important.  Well, here are two very big reasons why you are holding yourself back whenever you do not forgve. 

1)  You are holding yourself back from going home to God.  Our goal is to be more like God so that we can go home and be with him.  Until we become more like him we are destined to remain in  this "dream world" of  suffering and fear. 

God does not judge.  He only sees our true and perfect selves.  In A Course in Miracles, we are asked to give up all forms of judgment and to accept and forgive everything in our lives.
 
"It is necessary for the teacher of God to realize, not that he should not judge, but that he cannot." --A Course in Miracles, Manual for Teachers 10, 2, 1



"God's Son is guiltless, and sin does not exist."--A Course in Miracles, Manual for Teachers 10, 2,9

2)  You are holding yourself back from knowing peace while you are here.  Relinquishing judgments by accepting and forgiving this world is the only path to inner peace.

"God's word has promised that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible. But it is true that the world must be looked at differently, if His promises are to be accepted."  A Course in Miracles, Manual for Teachers 11, 1, 7

We look at the world differently by seeing through the eyes of forgiveness. We drop all judgments.  We know that every person here is a brother, even if sometimes they have forgotten this themselves and behave badly in ignorance.   We must know their real identity for them.   We accept with grace the events of this world and trust that they are happening here for us as a means where we can grow and purify by accepting and forgiving.  When we accept everything that happens to us, we are creating peace in our minds. 

"How is peace possible in this world?  In your judgment it is not possible, and can never be possible. But in the Judgment of God what is reflected here is only peace."--A Course in Miracles, Manual for Teachers 11, 3, 7-9  

Start a forgiveness habit today and move your life in the direction of happiness!  It doesn't happen overnight, but with diligent practice your life will change in ways that astonish you. 


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Friday, November 22, 2013

What's on Your List?

Stuff to Forgive...

  • barking dogs in the neighborhood
  • your spouse for not appreciating you enough
  • your kids for making a mess all over the house, yet again
  • the girl that made fun of your skirt in the fifth grade
  • the first guy that broke up with you
  • your former "best friend" for dating your x-boyfriend
  • your aging parent for getting old
  • yourself for creating clutter in your house
  • your friend and neighbor for dying unexpectedly
  • the deep hurt you feel that everyone ignores you much of the time

We all have lots of stuff like this.  Go ahead...make a list.  Take ten or twenty minutes and jot down everything you can think of.  Nothing is too big or too small.  Don't bother even thinking about trying to forgive anything on the list right now.  Just get it down.  Just write.  Do a brain dump. 



Once you have your list, start to work on forgiving one thing on the list each morning when you do your daily meditation and prayer work.  Take it slow.  Don't worry if you don't always forgive something new every day.  Sometimes I work on the same thing for many days at a time.  And sometimes, I just stew.  I think about forgiving, but I'm just not ready to face it, yet. 

That's OK.  Just know that it is right, however it is.  Don't be surprised if the universe gives you a little shove.  It might gift you with a little more information or insight about what you are forgiving or it might be another forgiveness "lesson" that is similar.  Chances are you'll be gently nudged in ways that will help you tackle each item on your list.  Let it unfold and do the forgiveness work you can as quickly as you are ready. 

As you move forward, remember that you are doing this FOR YOU!!  YOU want to be happy.  YOU want the peace. 

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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Are you really, truly happy?


When I was in my early 30’s I joined a book club.  One meeting, I made the remark to the girls that it seemed like all the books we had been reading were filled with  angst.  “Where are the happy people and the happy stories?” I wondered. 

I was surprised that my book club friends all looked at me blankly.  “Sue, the world is not about happiness”, they said.  I was shocked.  “Is that true?  Aren’t all of you happy?”  Now, this was a group that included successful career women.  Many had corporate husbands with good paychecks, lovely houses, and small children with nannies to care for them.  On the surface, every one of us looked like the epitome of happiness. 

Not so, however!  As we went around the room, one by one each woman confessed that she did not actually feel happy much of the time.  Rather, they spent most of their lives fighting to navigate their monstrous “to- do” lists, to keep their refrigerators stocked with food, to get ahead and make something of themselves at work, to keep organized households, to provide for their children and their husbands needs. 

Every one of them was secretly bitterly disappointed that their husbands did not love them in the way that they had once hoped they would be cherished and loved, that their bosses and co-workers did not see them as shining saviors for the companies they worked for, that they struggled with feeling unconnected and distant from their closest friends, and were heart-broken to find themselves physically separated from parents and families who often lived significant distances away.

Their lives were a constant state of worry, inadequacy and disappointment.  Each one battled daily with fears of rejection and abandonment.  Each one lived a surface life of success and happiness but underneath resided a deep-seated terror that the gig was about to be up.  Each lived with a terrible and secret fear that their real truth would somehow rise to the surface, and the whole structure they had worked tirelessly to create would shatter to the ground.

The truth is that when the lights go out in the middle of the night and we’re alone with our thoughts, every one of us feels achingly lonely, remorseful and terrified.

What Most of us Feel is Really Guilt.   However our denial of guilt causes us to run out into the world chasing accomplishments, laurels, activities, possessions and all the symbols of happiness. In reality, on the deep level of truth, most of us are simply not happy.  We feel guilty because we are living separately from God.  And clinging to these trappings, activities, and illusions only moves us further and further from living with God.  It’s the pride of self our egos cling to that separates us from knowing our true relationship with God. 

It’s by our own choice that we live in unhappiness.   This is because the “world” is actually structured so that we can be happy.  There is only one thing that we need to do to attain it.  And this one thing is forgiveness. 
In my book, Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness, there are many easy to use processes that will help you to forgive anybody and any event in your life, current or past.   Develop a daily habit of forgiveness and watch your life change from fear to love.
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Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Abundance Affirmations--Pair them With Forgiveness

Reverend Liz Luoma*, recommends the following affirmation:  "I am open to perceive and receive all the gifts God has for me today and everyday."  This is an excellent affirmation, but if you want to really see it work, pair it with the habit of forgiving everything

Another great affirmation which I use frequently is a simple meditation.  Breathe in and say "I accept".  Then breathe out and say "the love of God".**  Repeat this over and over.  I use this often before going to bed at night and find I sleep beautifully.  Again, this is another great tool, but if you want lasting happiness, forgive first and then meditate.  Make forgiveness a permanent part of your bedtime ritual and watch your life change.

*Center for Spiritual Living Tahoe-Truckee
**From The Way of Mastery


Sweet Dreams!


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Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Made by God.

I am made by God.  He made me exactly in his own image.  Therefore I am holy.  I am beloved by God.  I am perfect in every way. 

"My holiness is my salvation."

"Since my holiness saves me from all guilt, recognizing my holiness is recognizing my salvation.  It is also recognizing the salvation of the world.  Once I have accepted my holiness, nothing can make me afraid.  And because I am unafraid, everyone must share in my understanding, which is the gift of God to me and to the world." --A Course in Miracles  From the review materials for Workbook lesson 39 (see page 97). 



When I forgive myself all I need to do is know that I am made by God.  I am cherished and precious to him and I am only love.  There is nothing at all evil, sinful or wrong about me.  I am perfect in every way.  I am part of God.

Guilt is self attack and it is always insane. --Living A Course in Miracles, Jon Mundy

When I am struggling with forgiving myself I find it helpful to create an altar to God in my mind.  This altar is shining white marble, huge and very beautiful.  I simply lay anything that I feel guilty, angry, hurt, or pained by on this altar and give it over to the Holy Spirit.  He will handle it for me.  He will wash me clean and remove my fear. 


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Monday, November 18, 2013

Quickie Forgiveness

Here's a quick little forgiveness practice that works for most smaller forgiveness challenges.  I use this if someone whom I know well and really love is annoying me momentarily.  I also use it on people I barely know or don't know at all when they are annoying me just a little bit. 

I forgive you,
I release you,
I bless you with love.
 
Repeat this over and over and truly feel yourself blessing and loving the person you are forgiving.  It won't work if you repeat these as empty words.  You've got to really send the love.  When you feel the charge of annoyance, angry emotion or hurt dissipate, you are finished!
 
 
 
 
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Sunday, November 17, 2013

Forgiveness Removes Guilt

I encourage everyone I know to start a daily forgiveness practice.  Why?  Because when we get in the habit of daily forgiveness, over time our guilt will be removed. 

We all have huge storehouses of unresolved guilt lurking in our subconscious mind.  We feel guilty for every lie we've ever told, every unkind thought we've ever had, every person we've ever judged or rule we've ever broken.  We believe we've sinned.

 

Over the years this guilt builds up.  However, it's nothing compared to the mother-lode of guilt we create every moment we live separately from god.  Living as individuals, in our egos and choosing to ignore our true identity and oneness as God's Son*, leaves us with an iceberg of guilt under the surface of our conscious minds.  Only forgiveness can heal this guilt.

Without forgiveness, we believe we are unworthy.  Guilt blocks our ability to experience the true gifts which are our inheritance from God.  These gifts are peace, love, happiness, knowledge, beauty and abundance. 

Here is the key to happiness...do your forgiveness work, and then you will be able to live in God's gifts.  Forgive and release guilt and you will believe yourself worthy of accepting everything that God has to offer for you. 

*Son--The word Son in A Course of Miracles, refers to the collective Sonship, of which we are all a part, having been created by God.  We are all his perfect Son, the Christ.

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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Bob Newhart and Jon Munday on How to Stop Judging


I recently attended a seminar in which Jon Mundy spoke.  He said that he is often asked about judgment.  People want to know how to stop judging others.  He reminded us of an old Bob Newhart episode:


So there you have it folks, just stop it.  STOP IT!!  Stop the judging and live in peace. 

By the way, I have always loved Bob Newhart and watched a lot of his shows in reruns.  My sister's first husband's father was the producer for the show.  Bob Newhart's mild  manner reminded me so much of my own dad. 

One day when I was in my early 20's I was on Hilgard Ave adjacent to the UCLA campus where I was waiting at a stop signal. I glanced over at the car idling next to me and saw that it was Bob Newhart.  He had a small child (probably a grand-daughter) in the seat next to him and as I watched he wrapped his arm tenderly around the child and gently bent over intently to listen to whatever the child was saying.  It was a charming moment. 

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Monday, November 11, 2013

"This Mind is in all People"--Ernest Holmes

"The Mind which you use is the Mind which I use; It is the Mind which everyone uses.  It is the Mind of God and, because the Mind of God is a complete Unity, It is Omnipresent.  Therefore the Mind which you use and which is your mind now is the God-Mind in you.  This Mind is in all people, envelops all, and is at the center of every thing.  This is why it is that when you know the Truth at the center of your own being you know it within the only Mind there is."  --Ernest Holmes, Living the Science of Mind, p 118

We are all the same.  Strip away this world of dreams and it all boils down to one thing, we all spring forth from the same single mind.  We are one.  When we know this about another person, we are able to overlook any silly behavior they show us in this dream world.  It's not important.  It's them forgetting who they really are.  Just know their real truth for them, and let it go...


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Sunday, November 10, 2013

Colin Tipping...You Rock!!

"What is forgiveness if it is not extending the energy of Love to another and joining with him or her? What is forgiveness if it is not the key to our awakening? What is forgiveness if it is not the ONLY way to overcome the illusion of separation?"--Colin Tipping

I love Colin Tipping!  I receive regular email notification of his blog postings on forgiveness.  If you would like to join me, you can sign up on the top of his blog, here


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Saturday, November 9, 2013

Friday, November 8, 2013

Even though on an intellectual level you “know” that “you’re perfect, whole & complete” – do you doubt it?

Jennifer Hadley asked this question in one of her daily emails.  Most of us do have big emotional doubts, even though we are intellectually learning truths.  In order to turn what we are learning intellectually into knowing, however, we must do our forgiveness work. 

The reason we doubt is because we all have massive guilt in our subconscious minds.


 Each time we forgive, the Holy Spirit goes into our subconscious and removes a little of that guilt.  As we forgive repeatedly over time, our storehouse of guilt (which, of course, is the source of most of the suffering we experience here on earth) gets lessoned. 

This is why I look forward to my forgiveness opportunities.  Even though I know that the "classroom" of life may occasionally bring me painful experiences, when I forgive them and truly accept my world, I am offered peace instead. 

Forgiveness is the way we turn doubt and fear into love. 

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Wednesday, November 6, 2013

God is the Love in Which I Forgive--Workbook Lesson 46

Many of us were brought up believing that we must ask God to forgive us.  However, God doesn't forgive!!  Does this idea surprise you?

God never judges and therefore he never finds it necessary to forgive.  I find this message to be of great comfort. 
"God does not forgive because He has never condemned. And there must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. Forgiveness is the great need of this world, but that is because it is a world of illusions. Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them. As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself." --A Course in Miracles, Workbook, Lesson 46

 As our creator, God always knows his own truth about each of us.  We are perfect.  We are only good. We are love always and everywhere. 

Since God made us exactly in his own image, we can only be these things.  If we judge ourselves to be anything other than this, it is only our own self-created illusion.  We perceive that we are not perfect and therefore need God's forgiveness.

When we forgive others, we are actually acknowledging their truth--that there is nothing to judge them for, because they are also created in perfection.  They are only good.  They are love always and everywhere. 

The reason why it is so essential that we forgive others and see their truth is that as we see their truth, we actually begin to convince ourselves of our own truth.  If they are perfect, then we must be too.
"Yet although God does not forgive, His Love is nevertheless the basis of forgiveness. Fear condemns and love forgives. Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God. For this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. It is the means by which illusions disappear."  --Lesson 46 
Lesson 46 is the first place in the workbook that the concept of forgiveness is explored in any depth. Personally, I love the beautiful safety of knowing that I never need feel that I must ask for God's forgiveness.  Asking implies that it is possible that forgiveness might be withheld. 
Our fear of exactly that is the root of all of our problems.  We all live with deep and massive unconscious fear and guilt.  Our worry that God may disapprove of us, withhold his love from us, or feel angry toward us, causes tremendous and constant anxiety in our minds.  Here, in this very first Workbook message about forgiveness, we are being reassured that we need not worry about being judged by God.  God has only love and support to offer us. 

"I cannot be guilty because I am a Son of God.
I have already been forgiven.
No fear is possible in a mind beloved of God.
There is no need to attack because love has forgiven me."--Lesson 46

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

A Forgiveness Blessing

Try this sometime on someone you feel annoyed with.  Simply close your eyes and feel these thoughts going out to them, blessing and healing.  All thoughts are shared.  When you know your brother's truth, it becomes available for them to know, too. 
You are immense, because you are everywhere. 
You are magnificent, because you are what God is. 
You are always, because you live in eternity.

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Monday, November 4, 2013

Be "On Alert"

I often get asked what my forgiveness practice is like.  The best answer I can give is that it is always "on alert".  And if you really want to make headway on your spiritual path, you'll put your forgiveness "on alert", too.

Throughout the course of our days, we are going to encounter all kinds of "forgiveness opportunities". Sometimes we are simply forgiving the little annoyances of life, like the person who jostles us in the supermarket and doesn't apologize.  Other times, our lessons may be huge, overwhelming and even extremely painful such as when someone we care for deeply dies.  Some forgiveness opportunities take only a few minutes to forgive and some may take a lifetime. 

My policy is to forgive what I can when I can.  This means that I am always up-to-date with my forgiveness work.  I try to forgive the supermarket jostler on the spot if I can.  If the environment is too busy and I can't concentrate for the minute it takes to forgive, or if I just can't take the time at that moment, I'll forgive when I climb into bed for the night.  I find that this is the perfect time to review my day and forgive anything that pushed my buttons.

Some days memories and unresolved issues from my past come into my mind and trigger painful feelings.  Again, with these, I try to be always "on alert" with my thinking, carefully watching for thoughts that are resentful, angry, worried, painful or fearful in any way.  If I'm feeling victimized, I know I have something to forgive. If I'm feeling rejected or unworthy in any way, I know I have something to forgive.  I add these feelings to my nightly forgiveness work.

Sometimes an awareness of a memory of something from the past will cause me to feel physically uncomfortable.  I might feel stress symptoms such as a pounding heart and tight muscles, or I might feel a sharp pain in the area of my heart. These physical feelings also alert me to the fact that there is something here that needs to be forgiven. 

Of course, we all have experienced at least a few big painful events or betrayals in our lives.  I try to pull every aspect I have associated with these feelings into my awareness.  I work at forgiving these often.  Some nights I'll deliberately bring these painful events to mind to see if anything new about them occurs to me.  If so, I'll do some deep thinking and feeling about the issue, intensifying any memories or emotions associated with it.  It is surprising how often new aspects of the same old issues come to the surface.  I've found that it is possible to train myself to be vigilant and always aware of the tiniest threads of an issue.  I know that when I tug at these threads, a bigger piece of that ugly wound-up knot of pain will come free. 

There are days when there is simply nothing to forgive. Sometimes, this can be the way of things for several days in a row.  I go about my business in peace.  Other days there may be a small thing or two to forgive.  Of course, sooner or later the lessons of life will occur.  That's when it's time to buckle down and devote the time it takes to do some serious forgiveness work. 

I'm at peace with this process now, but regardless of what kind of a day I'm having, I remain always "on alert" looking for my forgiveness opportunities.  After all, I know I need them if I want to get back to God. 
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