Isn't your bag heavy enough? One day, a teacher had each one of his students bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes. For every person they refused to forgive in their life experience, they were told to choose a potato, write on it the names and date, and put it in the plastic bag. Some of the students bags, as you can imagine, were quite heavy.

They were then told to carry these bags with them everywhere for one week, putting it beside their beds at night, on the car seat when driving, next to their desk at school.

The hassle of lugging this around with them made it clear what a weight they were carrying spiritually, and how they had to pay attention to it all the time to not forget, and keep leaving it in embarrassing places.

Naturally, the condition of the potatoes deteriorated to a nasty slime. This was a great metaphor for the price we pay for keeping our pain and heavy negativity!

Too often we think of forgiveness as a gift to the other person and it clearly is for us!

So the next time you decide you can't forgive someone, ask yourself ... "Isn't my bag heavy enough?"

posted by Linda Hontz