From the book,
"Healing Your Grieving Soul,
100 Spiritual Practices For Mourners"
by Alan D. Wolfelt, PH.D.

48.
FORGIVE

*You may be harboring some spiteful feelings about the death of someone loved. Perhaps you are angry at a medical caregiver. Maybe you're upset at friends and family who haven't been there for you in your time of need. Maybe you are mad at the person who died.

*Forgiveness is an act of surrender. If you surrender your resentment, you are freeing yourself of a very heavy load... Don't go to your own grave angry.

*Forgive. Write letters of forgiveness if this will help you unburden yourself, even if you never send the letters.

*And while you're at it, don't forget to forgive yourself. Self-recrimination is negative energy. If you did something wrong, acknowledge, apologize, and forgive.

*This Idea calls to mind this poem by William Arthur Ward, and American pastor and teacher:

Before you speak, listen.
Before you write, think.
Before you spend, earn.
Before you invest, investigate.
Before you criticize, wait.
Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try.
Before you retire, save.
Before you die, give.