Page 1 - 2021 January Listen - 15-1

A
COMPA N ION S Listen
RESOURCE
FOR
SPIRITUAL

JANUARY 2021 VOLUME 15 ISSUE 1

SPIRITUAL COMPANIONSHIP

AND SECOND CHANCES

Who among us, hasn’t wanted a second chance? redemption and forgiveness can be much harder to
Sometimes in little ways, to make amends for come by.
a poor choice of words, or a rush to judgment,
or an unintended slight. Apologies, sincere and Still, we persist, because we want to heal, and we
heartfelt, can go a long ways in these instances. need others to see and recognize our new emergence.
And, if accepted, we come out the better for it, more To tend to us with their open-hearted acceptance.
empathetic and understanding on our end, and ideally
heard, understood, and forgiven, on the other. But what does it mean to get a second chance
spiritually?
Occasionally the challenge is much bigger, and we
need to reinvent ourselves, after spiraling down some We may have spent a lifetime following a particular
deep hole that we can’t easily get out of. Perhaps spiritual tradition or path, only to find that it no
we have fallen prey to mental illness, addictions longer feeds our soul, or that we were following it
of various kinds, bad habits, toxic behaviours, or for all of the wrong reasons, to please our families,
debilitating pain and grief. These scenarios require perhaps, out of sense of obligation, or somewhat
us to rearchitect ourselves more profoundly, and unthinking tribal allegiance. Or it simply no longer

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