“Most of us think we know what our problem is; but do we really? One way to discover its real nature is to write it out in detail. Putting it into words on paper, where we can look at it and correct it as our attitudes change, can be most helpful in making us see it clearly.” (ODAT, 14 April)
Once I put everything on paper, I realise that the totality of the list of grievances does not explain why I am aggrieved.
Forgiveness is based chiefly on the realisation that, ‘no, not that’. The ‘that’ is not the reason.
Behind everything is a disquiet, a barely perceptible wrongness of things, whose elusiveness is so alarming in its unknowability that it’s easier to create present enemies. A real monster is less frightening than an unseen force.
What does one do with the unseen force? Sit squarely in reality and say, ‘come at me’. There is nothing there. It has absolutely nothing on one.