Forgiveness Workshop February 12, 2002

Many old friends and new came to our Forgiveness Workshop at the Plainfield
Yankee Motor Inn. In small groups we explored different aspects of
forgiveness and anger.  We worked on forgiving self, forgiving others and
forgiving Higher Power.  When we brought the small group discussion to the
full group, we came to some conclusions about forgiveness.

We decided that time does heal, and that forgiveness does not make a wrong
right.  We talked about anger as a source of motivation as well as a source
of physical and emotional problems.  We agreed that conflicts and
difficulties can create positive outcomes, and that sometimes it is best to
be the one to "rise above" and offer forgiveness, even if you don't think
that you did anything wrong. We shared our own techniques for healing the
wounds of abuse, divorce, physical injury and workplace conflicts.

We ended our session with a guided mediation where we each forgave ourselves
for one thing, and let go of our anger toward one other person.