To Forgive Is To Set A Prisoner

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]

Forgive A Wife-slammer If You Can. But You Don't Have To Live With Him. Forgive A Husband Who Is Abusing Your Children If You Can. But Only After You Kick Him Out Of The House. And If You Can't Get Him Out, Get Help. It's Available. In The Meantime, Don't Let Him Near The Kids, And Don't Let Anyone Tell You That If You Forgive Him It Means You Have To Stay With Him. [there's An Important Difference Between Forgiving A Person And Tolerating Their Bad Behavior.]

If You Cannot Free People From Their Wrongs And See Them As The Needy People They Are, You Enslave Yourself To Your Own Painful Past And By Fastening Yourself To The Past, You Let Your Hate Become Your Future.

Vengeance Is Having A Videotape Planted In Your Soul That Cannot Be Turned Off. It Plays The Painful Scene Over And Over Again Inside Your Mind...and Each Time It Plays You Feel The Clap Of Pain Again...forgiving Turns Off The Videotape Of Pained Memory Forgiving Sets You Free.

When I Feel The Joy Of Receiving A Gift My Heart Nudges Me To Join Creation's Ballet, The Airy Dance Of Giving And Receiving, And Getting And Giving Again.