Forgiveness Is More Than Saying Sorry....

We've all experienced it. People in our lives have hurt us and we have hurt others. Whether it be a tiff with a friend, hurtful words from a significant other or even a disagreement between family. No one is safe from a broken heart.

But when tempers have calmed, and understandings have been found, where does that leave the ones who have been hurt?

Contrary to many bad romantic comedies, the answer lies within the one that has been wronged. It is up to us to forgive. No amount of guilt can reverse a situation. No matter how much we want to keep blaming someone for hurtful things that have happened in the past, that void and emptiness inside our hearts can only be fixed by forgiving.

It's never fun, and in my experience it has been known to take a very long time. It's something that I am not proud of and am working on in a case by case type situation.

 It always seems easier to use remedies to avoid the act of forgiveness. There is always revenge, which is fun for a minute. But as history has proved many times over, it just starts a new cycle of hurting. Guilting someone to death just takes too much energy and time. Eventually you wake up and realize you are over the situation. Then all those feelings of guilt you threw on someone just make you look like you took advantage of someone else's mistakes.

But truly the remedy that can hurt the most is changing your life so that you just don't face the situation. You can try and drown it in nights out; you can cover it up with blankets and stay in bed for weeks. You can try and put as many friends and addresses and numbers between you and the problem. But in the end, it just makes a bigger and different kind of void.

At the end of a long road of remedies, all that is left is forgiveness. In this place people come to rest. They come to a realization that bad things happen; that people hurt us, and that we hurt others. That sometimes business seems a little to personal and that promises of trust were made with an expiration date.

No matter the story, no matter who's fault it really was. No matter how much we ask ourselves why and what was I thinking? No one is safe from broken hearts.

So try and find forgiveness in anyway that you can. Do it now, fix it today. You don't even need the other person involved around. Because forgiving yourself and forgiving someone else can only be found within you.  

              "To err is human, to forgive is divine."