Forgiveness

People will say, "forgive and forget."  But most often, that's the wrong advice to take.  Enough of the time, it is brought up as a caution--and then they say "forgive but never forget."  Regardless, more often than not, it seems that good ideas involve forgiveness.  The question comes up though, of how much is too much.  "Once a cheater, always a cheater" it is said.  And that implies that forgiveness should not be granted.

I find myself disagreeing with that.  I'm hard on myself and hard on others in my expectations.  But I am very much soft on them when it comes to difficult situations.  I sympathize with people easily, perhaps too easily, but I understand that.  I believe in forgiveness.  And second chances.  And third.  And fourth.  And so on and so forth.  People make mistakes.  I have made them myself, and I've changed and become a better person.  As a result, I don't let myself count people out because of simple incidents.

It happens.  Things don't always go as planned or as desired.  People mess up.  The thing is, you can't change what happened in the past.  So after a point, all you can do is move forward.  I believe in forgiveness.  I believe that people change.  I've also been known in the past to hope and believe that I would be *the one* to change a person.  I don't think I've succeeded in doing so.  I don't know that I ever will.  That's not going to deter me, though.

I'm not in this to change someone.  I'm making my life work.  And to do that, I believe in forgiveness, I believe in trust, and I believe in letting things happen.  Maybe I do forgive too easily.  But I'm getting as much out of my life as I can.  I'm not being oblivious or letting emotions get the better of me--this is cold, solid rationality.  I have no reason to dwell on it.  All I can do is let go of the incidents that happened, and deal with things as they come up.

This is why I forgive as quickly as I do.  This is why I let things go seemingly without a second glance.  My mind is still working through it all, analyzing the facts quietly in the background.  But the rest of me isn't going to get stuck on a finite number of occasions that cause more pain than anything.  I'm willing to move forward and do what it takes.  The rest is up to you.