Forgiveness: a safe place to practice

Forgiveness is a powerful and scary practice. I think it's important to note that forgiveness does not mean forgetting what happened or letting bad things happen to us again. Forgiveness often must go with setting limits. But lack of forgiveness is a burden that we carry, and we are the only ones who can lighten our own load. In order to do the hard work that goes with forgiveness we need to operate from a place of safety.

In Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantages of a Painful Childhood, Wayne Muller suggests that we need to do the work of forgiveness from a safe place. He writes (p. 13-14), "Find a small corner in a bedroom or some other quiet place in your home. This will become your place of refuge, your personal spiritual sanctuary. ... Find a low table, bench, or even a cardboard box, and drape it with some pleasing material, using this as a focal point for your own journey. ... Allow yourself to visualize what is most beautiful, inspiring, or sacred in your life, those thing that represent the healing, inward journey of your heart. ... Collect a few of those meaningful objects and place them on table. ...
Make time each day to sit in your place of refuge. ... You only need sit, feel and listen. Allow this to be a place without judgment or expectation, a new home, a place of rest."

This could be your listening space as well, and/or your meditation space and your thank you space.