The Secret is.......forgiveness

Today's blog is a little late...but I've had a lot on my mind. As people come and go in our lives, the comings and goings are not always calm and quiet. The "comings" often are, but the "goings" are a different story.

When someone we love hurts us, the pain is deep and it's hard to push out of our minds. In fact, it's pretty much impossible.

When we are faced with wounds of this magnitude, we still have choices. We can succumb to the temptation to hate and to return injury for injury, we can withdraw and prevent any possible engagement between ourselves and the one who hurt us, or....we can cocoon ourselves while we heal and then, when we're ready, venture back into life with the same compassion and humanity that we had before the injury.

We don't have to return hurt for hurt. We CAN heal and then return to our normal selves and even (are you ready for this?) be kind to the person who hurt us.

Life is about choices. We choose how we will respond to others. No one "makes" you cynical, or vengeful, or hateful - those are choices YOU make.
Make your choices carefully. They reflect who you truly are. People might not understand how or why you are being kind to someone who has hurt you terribly when conventional wisdom tells us to "kick them to the curb", but that's OK. At the end of the day, you have to live with yourself. You have to be able to look yourself in the eyes and say "I did good today." Can you say that if you know you have been vengeful or cold and cynical?

Forgive! It doesn't mean you let the person keep hurting you - but it does mean that you free yourself from the bondage of maintaining your hurt and anger.

Love freely - even to those who hurt you. They are going through their own struggle that you may never know. You don't have to leave yourself vulnerable and unattended in order to live in forgiveness and the freedom that come with it.