Teach me to forgive

As we progress through these ten days of teshuvah, of re-turning to the Wholeness that we are , I offer this prayer-poem for your contemplation. It burst through this morning during my prayer and meditation time. Perhaps it will resonate with you and support your own work of return in this awesome season.


Adon Ha-S’likhot
Master of Pardonings,
teach me to forgive--
to forgive myself,
to forgive You,
to forgive those who have hurt me
in the name of ignorance, mindlessness,
certainty, rigidity,
even righteousness and justice,
even love;
to forgive the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
to forgive nature, human and otherwise,
personal and impersonal,
majestic and petty;
to forgive death,
to forgive You,
to forgive myself--
to forgive it all,
so that I may open to life,
living-and-dying as it is,
flowing through me
carrying it all along,
a great river of living-and-dying,
a mighty stream of birthing-and-dying,
a towering wave of living-and-dying.
Holy Merciful one
Ba’al Ha-Rakhamim,
teach me to forgive.

           —R. Diane Elliot, Aseret Y’mei Hat’shuvah, 5776