Workshop - The Reconciling & Forgiving Community

Forgiveness isn’t something we can force. When we’ve been hurt, the impulse to protect, resent, or shut down makes sense. In this workshop, Mark Van Buren — author and meditation teacher — explores forgiveness as a gradual, human process rather than a moral demand. 

Together, we’ll look at how to feel and live with what hurts without bypassing it, and how forgiveness often unfolds in its own time. While we can’t manufacture it, we can nourish the conditions that allow it to grow.  Participants will explore how to: 

• Stay present with pain without becoming defined by it 

• Work skillfully with anger and resentment 

• Loosen rigid stories about what happened 

• Create the inner conditions where forgiveness can naturally emerge 

Forgiveness isn’t about excusing harm.  It’s about tending to our inner self, where freedom becomes possible.