PicoBlog

forgiveness spell

Take two small rocks,

wildflower seeds, a container with water,

and a notebook. Make a small hole

in the dirt. Ideally in somewhere

you can revisit: a backyard,

a plot of dirt nearby, a park,

or a small pot with soil in it.

Sit down for a while. In a notebook

or scrap piece of paper, write out:

“I forgive ____.”

What are you forgiving?

If it comes to you, write out specificities.

Leave room for anger to come through.

Close your eyes and picture walking

into the room where your anger is held.

Look around. Imagine it has windows

in it that you can open, and sunlight streaming

through them. Imagine you can hear bird song.

Sit in the room for a while.

What would it feel like to forgive–

to let go for yourself?

What could you clear room for through release?

Open your eyes and pick up the one of the rocks.

Imagine placing all of your heaviness into it.

A rock has been formed over centuries. It can hold it.

Pick up the other. While holding it, think of blessings

you would give the person you are forgiving.

These do not have to be things you ever tell them.

They can be the things you wish for any being.

Fold the paper with your forgiveness message on it.

Place it in the dirt, with the two rocks on top of it.

Sprinkle soil on top of it–enough that it is buried.

What are you tired of holding onto?

What will you grow through release?

Scatter the wildflower seeds on this pile and dust

dirt over them.

Give them water while envision

the ways letting go can change you.

Think or say aloud:

I am tired of holding onto ___.

I want more ______ in my life.

Forgiving clears room for ______.

I forgive.

I forgive ___.

I forgive myself.

I begin again.

Come back frequently to water these seeds.

Stills from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s documentary, Psychomagic: A Healing Art.

Every day I think the same blessings because I know that our thoughts have material impacts. I know that if I want a world in which love, connection, and joy for all beings exists, that I must increase these in myself. I know that this can take place in many ways. One way is to every day do the work on my heart of envisioning freedom. Another way is to speak this out. Another way is taking material action to change and create change. Every day may I try to be an environment where integrity, honesty, and love rooted live. I forgive in recognition of this.

And I say this with all of this in mind: Free Palestine. Free Sudan. Free the Congo. May suffering end for all people.May love be an ethic that can guide me and teach me to look beyond the personal and beyond the human. May it be a way of looking into the world with joy and awe, and the recognition that all life is sacred.

Shirts, totes, stickers: A Baba Yaga shirt, a sweatshirt and hat praising mystery, a shirt and tote with a quote on platonic intimacy, and more not pictured.

I am available on a limited basis for editing work. I have edited novels, monologues, poems and poetry manuscripts, and essays. I also enjoy making fliers, book covers, and other graphic design work, and would love to do more of this.

I’ll be making a more formal announcement, but if you’d like to work together, please email: lora.mathis@gmail.com

I cannot speak enough about how Lora’s editing work has impacted my career. When I first sent Lora my manuscript, it was such a mess that I was too embarrassed to share it with anyone else. We worked together to clean up the piece and then she recommended I query for a literary agent. Three months later, I signed with one of the most well-established literary agents in the world. Without Lora—her edits, her advice, her brilliance—I would not be in the place I am today. Don’t think twice about hiring Lora as your editor: I guarantee it will be the best decision you’ve made in a long time.

–Ameen Beydoun, writer-creator of the Habibti Pada Graphic Novel Series

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