Personally, I had never heard the word used the way it had been when I heard it used yesterday. "Reconciliation" to me was a term I would use when I was reconciling the bank statement for a client. Yet it was given in a message yesterday, and as I listened to President Obama's speech at Mr Mandela's memorial, I realized that Nelson Mandela had taught "reconciliation". What was it, and how did he achieve it?
President Obama stated that Mr Mandela taught us that "reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth." When we are faced with disagreements, differing opinions, and arguments, reconciliation may be the best means to obtain a peaceful solution. All countries, all people, all races have differing pasts. We have had different experiences, different upbringings, different social conditions. We all will probably never be of the same opinion on everything. In order to "get along", for there to be peace among a country or even among people we must learn to reconcile ourselves.
I believe Mr Mandela had a great deal of time to think about the best and most peaceful solutions for his country. He has left us with a very powerful tool. Reconciliation allows us to embrace the fact that perhaps we've been hurt, betrayed, or abused. We must first accept the truth of the situation. We must accept our part of the responsibility and be generous and open enough to see the other side.
We can never solve a problem with anger or with the same mind that we entered into the problem with to begin with. We have to reach to the other, and as Nelson Mandela did, even know our enemy. Who is on the differing opinion's side? Who is it that betrayed you? Know their mind, their upbringing, their conditioning and be generous enough to include their past experiences into your truth about why they may act or have acted they way they have. Only here can we begin to see both sides of the fence and begin to break the barriers that stand between our countries, our races, and our world.
If you have had issues in your past, don't ignore them, embrace them for what they were. Then as you go forward also embrace the truth about them. Was the past about you or about the perpetrator? Was the hurt about something you personally did or something that was acting out within them?
Starting at a point of openness and inclusion, including all the possibilities of why things transpired the way they did, can lead us down not only a road of healing but a road of a more fulfilled life and peaceful state of being.
President Obama stated that Mr Mandela taught us that "reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth." When we are faced with disagreements, differing opinions, and arguments, reconciliation may be the best means to obtain a peaceful solution. All countries, all people, all races have differing pasts. We have had different experiences, different upbringings, different social conditions. We all will probably never be of the same opinion on everything. In order to "get along", for there to be peace among a country or even among people we must learn to reconcile ourselves.
I believe Mr Mandela had a great deal of time to think about the best and most peaceful solutions for his country. He has left us with a very powerful tool. Reconciliation allows us to embrace the fact that perhaps we've been hurt, betrayed, or abused. We must first accept the truth of the situation. We must accept our part of the responsibility and be generous and open enough to see the other side.
We can never solve a problem with anger or with the same mind that we entered into the problem with to begin with. We have to reach to the other, and as Nelson Mandela did, even know our enemy. Who is on the differing opinion's side? Who is it that betrayed you? Know their mind, their upbringing, their conditioning and be generous enough to include their past experiences into your truth about why they may act or have acted they way they have. Only here can we begin to see both sides of the fence and begin to break the barriers that stand between our countries, our races, and our world.
If you have had issues in your past, don't ignore them, embrace them for what they were. Then as you go forward also embrace the truth about them. Was the past about you or about the perpetrator? Was the hurt about something you personally did or something that was acting out within them?
Starting at a point of openness and inclusion, including all the possibilities of why things transpired the way they did, can lead us down not only a road of healing but a road of a more fulfilled life and peaceful state of being.
No comments:
Post a Comment