“I eventually came to understand that in harboring the anger, the
bitterness and resentment towards those that had hurt me, I was giving
the reins of control over to them. Forgiving was not about accepting
their words and deeds. Forgiving was about letting go and moving on with
my life. In doing so, I had finally set myself freeA broken friendship that is mended through forgiveness can be even stronger than it once was. This life is for loving, sharing, learning, smiling, caring, forgiving,
laughing, hugging, helping, dancing, wondering, healing, and even more
loving.i choose to live life this way... most people deceive themselves with a pair of faiths: they believe in eternal memory (of people, things, deeds, nations) and in redressibility
(of deeds, mistakes, sins, wrongs). Both are false faiths. In reality
the opposite is true: everything will be forgotten and nothing will be
redressed. The task of obtaining redress (by vengeance or by
forgiveness) will be taken over by forgetting. No one will redress the
wrongs that have been done, but all wrongs will be forgotten.When you initially forgive, it is like letting go of a hot iron. There
is initial pain and the scars will show, but you can start living again...”Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do
for yourself. It's saying, 'You're not important enough to have a
stranglehold on me.' It's saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past.
I am worthy of a future.None of us are bad people. We float around and we run across each other
and we learn about ourselves, and we make mistakes and we do great
things. We hurt others, we hurt ourselves, we make others happy and we
please ourselves. We can and should forgive ourselves and each other for
that.”
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| Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all; forgiving means to pardon that which is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. |
