Everyone and everything that we may choose to forgive is a part of our past.

It’s very similar to driving a car. If we do not learn to take our eyes off of the rearview mirror of life, we will always keep crashing.

Often times, when it’s too difficult for us to forgive someone, it is because we believe that if we forgive them we are letting them off the hook for their words or actions. However, forgiving someone else is about freeing ourselves from the negative energy that binds us to that person. If we never find it in ourselves to forgive, then we may forever hold on to the pain that the person once caused us.

Forgiving is a personal endeavor. You will never quite understand how strong you are until you have to forgive someone who isn’t sorry, and except an apology that you never received. It is done so that we can move on in our lives, not so that the other person can no longer feel burdened by the grudge we hold against them. In life, we are not always blessed with lovely and positive encounters. Everyone faces hurt and pain from family members or friends. It’s unfortunate, but always very inevitable. When someone has caused us so much pain, enough pain to create a wound to our soul, we have to find it in ourselves to forgive them. That is the only way to help stitch that wound.

It’s tough to accept the choices that people make, especially when it’s with the intentions of hurting us. But everyone makes bad choices, even the people that we love. When we forgive, we don’t have to forget. We are alllowed to keep those memories in the deepest part of our mind but the goal is that overtime, after forgiving, they begin to diminish.

With all that fortune cookie nonsense aside, if you are feeling broken or unhappy; if you're feeling discouraged and disassembled, deceived and emotionaly beaten, upset and resentful...forgive. And let go of the anger and short temperedness that derives from your deepest struggles.

What happens when you don't forgive? You loose sight of who you are as an individual. All of your thoughts become crafted around the idea of hating and avoiding that one person or group of people that have caused you pain in your life. You change, you become angry, hostile, and malicious and you know at the end of the day that you're not happy and you're not yourself. You know that if that person didn't do what they did to you that you could be happier and your life would be easier. You wonder, if that person didn't exist, if they never hurt you in the first place, would your thoughts be less toxic? Would you be as guarded as you are? Would you feel such anger towards them? Would you be happier?

...

A dash of sympathy, a pinch of love, and courage to taste; that is my recipe for forgiveness.