1.12.2014 AWR: Forgiveness – Where Vivid Narratives Live

Sometimes the things that are holding you back

Are the things you wanna attack

For the happiness to flow

You gotta let go

And forgive people for being whack

When I chose “Forgiveness” as the January theme, I had no idea how much it would resonate with so many artists. Yet, we all gathered together and explored different facets of forgiving.

The theme drink was the lemon drop since when life gives you lemons, you can turn it around and make lemon drops! (It was also a handy cedar fever allergy reliever.)

Opening the show, Christina Ceballos reported on the three forgiveness processes taught to her by local healers who helped put her life back on a positive track: Radical Forgiveness, Integrated Energetic Therapy and Akashic Records readings.

Birdman 313 shared an insightful poem about forgiving his ex-wife who ended their marriage of 25 years for something that occurred 15 years previously.

Stephanie Webb detailed the attributes of the Black Superwoman (highly educated, well-traveled, well-loved, well-read…) and forgiving herself for feeling defeated for not being the embodiment of the impossible role.

Donna Dechen Birdwell recounted all her significant moments of forgiving from great loves to small creatures.

Daniel Davila described a beautiful forgiveness process where one takes a walk alone and for each step, chants who is forgiven for a particular action and the next step is to forgive yourself. The process continues until the person walks past his/her anger.

Teresa Y. Roberson gave shout outs to a list of the groups of people who she forgave, starting with the assholes. Finally, she forgave herself for her own shortcomings.

Thom the World Poet closed the featured artist portion of the show, calling out the political and religious forgiveness needed and drew a huge laugh for his forgiveness of the state of Texas for “killing people for killing people.”