[B]I have found that we die to many things each day and unless we live each moment in the present we are totally unaware of this constant process happening in our lives. Once we become aware of what is occurring the fear of lettting go and doing God's will and accepting what is happening in our lives becomes easier each day as long as we are open to the graces that God places in our lives.I have had several near death experiences and each one has made me realize more fully how much God loves me and awaits me w/ open arms and I received such peace and joy at a moment of true darkness. So Death can be overcome by our faith and belief and grace from God. I have no doubt as I have lived it.

Thank you Cathy!

Sue

I have ongoing resentments, and it is a constant process of acknowledging my pain,bringing the whole mess to Jesus,and asking for truth (there is often a lot of melodrama and half-truths in my resentment stories) and real, authentic love and wholeness to my relationships.I used to just dive into the forgiveness part, after berating myself for being so resentful, but I was just denying my feelings, just trying so hard to be "good", and missing something important about myself.This is hard to explain -- the process is not analytical,although journaling helps -- I guess the most important step is to simply ask for help, and to be open and honest with God about my feelings about the past and my hurts and betrayals and my need to be loved, and to let myself move into a more spacious, forgiving and freeing space.(There is a part of me that just loves to be stuck in the aggrieved victim, I hate to say!)

Sounds good to me, bdb. Are you familiar with the literature on condependency? You comment about being an "aggrieved victim" has me wondering if there's not a bit of codependency contributing to your situation.

It's rather slow on this forum, as the workshop was first offered in Lent 08 then most people dropped off when it was done. Maybe a few still have notifications turned on and will give us a visit, here.