This topic of forgiveness has been on my heart as of late, so I write. What does it mean to forgive someone? There is a great deal of internal processing that must happen for us to completely forgive someone. First, we must see them as human and fallible, just as we are. We must consider them and place ourselves in their position and understand that they made a mistake. We shouldn't have to be asked for forgiveness by those who have done us wrong. True and complete forgiveness is done beforehand, internally. This calming of the retaliatory, reactionary anger and then forgiving is a true sign of maturity. Over the years and after many examples of the opposite response, we grow weary of carrying those burdens. We learn that is better for us to forgive and move on. Do we forget? Unless we want to keep falling victim to users we will never truly forget. But you can remember what happened, learn the lessons, not dwell on...
Beware the extremes!