When something strikes you it doesn’t always arrive with a thunderous clash.   Sometimes  it arrives quietly and gently lays its head in your lap in a way that  you find you can’t move without disturbing it.  In a way that makes you give it notice even when you try hard not to.

Benefit of the doubt has rested in my lap for months.  Forcing its way into my conscious, relentlessly requiring me to pay it some attention.  It was brought to me by way of a simple conversation.  Four small words said with earnest and  raw sincerity;  A small-voiced request to be understood.

Four small words. So ordinary in so many other occasions, but this time, this time they were different. They’ve  made me pause and pause again –  to think about the moment, to reconsider the possibilities. They’ve caused me to slow down my assumptions, to rethink my diagnosis of intent, to cease the incessant question of motivation,  to purify my thinking to rid it of its doubt and skepticism. And from that clear and uncluttered space, I find myself in a position to understand.  From that space comes a level of empathy, my head full of an awareness that had gone missing.  From that space there has been a path to openness and acceptance. From that space you find your way to forgiveness.