Facing the Sins of our Fathers

Clean up, clean up,

everybody, everywhere.

Clean up, clean up,

everybody do your share.

(Preschool Nursery Rhyme)

The Old Testament is full of reminders that the "sins of our fathers" have to be paid for over many generations. You may cringe when you hear this thesis, but the problem statement is unfortunately real. But we fortunately have a choice in that. A homework has to be done, and we can decide how to complete our task. Importantly, we can stop the movie here and now when we make the right choice this time around: saying no to fear and saying yes to love!

A shadow may be lingering over us, but we can decide to face the sun. "Sacrifice is a notion totally unknown to God", says A Course in Miracles, so never think that you have to pay the price for anything. But hard work may be required to finish the homework that our parents started but couldn't quite finish. That's ok, we are all here on earth with a mission anyway, so we might as well tidy a few things up for them, just as the toddlers do it for their friends at pre-school.

All these thoughts came to me when a friend at the Spiritual Networks Community admitted that she is a child conceived of incest. She was in her 50s when she learned about it with the help of a genetic test. "But then", she added, "no-one is around any longer to blame, except for my mom, and she will not talk about it." So she zoomed into the love for her "adopted" grand parents instead who once said to her, "Well, there are rumors that our son might not be your dad, but as long as no-one knocks on our door and claims you, we are honored and delighted to be your grand-parents." 

So the friend zoomed into love, not hate. She could have hated her maternal grand-dad who was also her dad, but she decided to zoom into the love of these amazing people. That's how every shadow exercise works. You can zoom into the fact that someone at some point deliberately littered the room, and you can zoom into the perspective that everything will again be sparkling clean when a group of committed friends get together and shoulder the task at hand. Everyone might have has a cross to carry, but no-one needs to be nailed to it anymore. 

Clean up, clean up,

everybody, everywhere.

Clean up, clean up,

everybody do your share!