As I’ve gotten older (and I like to think wiser), I’ve realized the importance of forgiveness. I also have noticed that those that fail to see the importance- those that carry around anger, hate, hurt and resentment of things that happened in the past, are in some ways still allowing that moment in time control their life. I’ve also noticed that for some people, lack of forgivness has manifested like cancer in their lives and forgiveness is something they are incapable of. They spend so much time thinking about how they have been wronged and victimized that they fail to recognize that they are the ones missing out.
Years ago Marcel and I had a conversation about how he couldn’t comprehend how I forgave me ex-husband for the things that he did to me. He said they were inexcusable and I would agree, they were. I explained to him that I didn’t do it for my ex, but instead, I did it for myself. It was something that I carried around and it kept me from living in the ‘now’.
Several days ago I was watching Oprah and she said that the best meaning of forgiveness that she had ever heard was:
“Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different.”
I love quotations, so I wrote it down, but this stayed with me long after I finished watching the show. After all, isn’t that what makes it so difficult for us to let go of the things that have happened to us- the fact that we ask ourselves a gazillion questions as to what we could have done to make things have a different outcome?
Let it go- forgive- accept that is, is and nothing will ever change that. Start living today!