Forgiving Does Not Erase The Bitter Past.

We Attach Our Feelings To The Moment When We Were Hurt, Endowing It With Immortality. And We Let It Assault Us Every Time It Comes To Mind. It Travels With Us, Sleeps With Us, Hovers Over Us While We Make Love, And Broods Over Us While We Die. Our Hate Does Not Even Have The Decency To Die When Those We Hate Die-for It Is A Parasite Sucking Our Blood, Not Theirs. There Is Only One Remedy For It. [forgiveness]

None Of Us Wants To Admit That We Hate Someone... When We Deny Our Hate We Detour Around The Crisis Of Forgiveness. We Suppress Our Spite, Make Adjustments, And Make Believe We Are Too Good To Be Hateful. But The Truth Is That We Do Not Dare To Risk Admitting The Hate We Feel Because We Do Not Dare To Risk Forgiving The Person We Hate.

When Forgiveness Is Necessary, Don't Wait Too Long. We Must Begin To Forgive, Because Without Forgiving, We Choke Off Our Own Joy; We Kill Our Own Soul. People Carrying Hate And Resentment Can Invest Themselves So Deeply In That Resentment That They Gradually Define Themselves In Terms Of It.

Forgiving Does Not Usually Happen At Once. It Is A Process, Sometimes A Long One, Especially When It Comes To Wounds Gouged Deep. And We Must Expect Some Lapses...some People Seem To Manage To Finish Off Forgiving In One Swoop Of The Heart. But When They Do, You Can Bet They Are Forgiving Flesh Wounds. Deeper Cuts Take More Time And Can Use A Second Coat.

When You Release The Wrongdoer From The Wrong, You Cut A Malignant Tumor Out Of Your Inner Life. You Set A Prisoner Free, But You Discover That The Real Prisoner Was Yourself.