Forgiveness

I used to think that forgiveness only was possible

if the person who had done something I considered

wrong or hurtful to me, asked me for forgiveness and

probably also in a convincing way.

Now I feel that forgiveness has more to do with a

conscious decision from my side to let the grievance

go emotionally.

I like these two quotes Jerry sent me:

"When deep injury is done to us,

we never recover until we forgive.
Forgiveness does not change the past,

but it does enlarge the future."
Mary Karen

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"Not to forgive is to be imprisoned by the past, by old

grievances that do not permit life to proceed with new business.

Not to forgive is to yield oneself to another's control. . .

to be locked into a sequence of act and response, of outrage

and revenge, tit for tat, escalating always.

The present is endlessly overwhelmed and devoured by the past.

Forgiveness frees the forgiver.

It extracts the forgiver from someone else's nightmare."
Lance Morrow

"Forgiveness frees the forgiver". I like that.