...There seems to be a bit of confusion in the world regarding the nature of forgiveness, and the crucial difference between the word forgiveness and the word 'condone.' Just as one must never equate the word religion with the word 'God', so one must beware of assuming that forgiving someone for a real or imagined slight is the same as condoning that slight. Forgiveness is foremost a requirement for emotional healing of oneself, and has nothing to do with the perpetrator of the supposed transgression. . We are all self responsible for the emotional choices we make and all of those choices are self affecting. Forgiveness in each of us comes from a place of humility and unconditional love and acceptance. It is a relinquishing of blame and anger and victim hood, to be replaced by inner peace and love-and trusting that it is better to live in joy than bitterness. That does not mean that we agree with the supposed transgression, only that we choose not to live in the past and let it negatively affect our present and future. Personally, I have found that safely and fully expressing whatever sorrow or anger one feels at the time of the injury-which might take months or years-is far better than suppressing it, for eventually the emotional bucket empties, and one moves on in life stronger and wiser.
