The Art of Forgiveness

You will not leave this life unscathed.

The world will lay its hands on you in vain. It will cause a wound to bleed until you agree to forget it. It will force your face so far down into the earth that the fallen spot will be forever marked by your pain. The crash will be so loud that it is quiet. You will see the outline of your essence as it irreversibly mixes with the sand it fell on. It’s imprint will serve as an unwanted reminder of what was stolen from you, only to be buried beneath the ground and left to rot. The world will never give you this part of yourself back- but there will be flowers that grow in this spot once infertile.

​You will regrow.

There will be orchids, in every countable color, that bloom from the old and grow into the new. What was once unbearable to see will become a beauty worthy of universal admiration. These stems will grow with you as you grow beyond each and every dark moment. Their petals will overshadow the tracings of this irremovable mark. There will be four leaf clovers and oak trees that plant roots in the places you have touched. You will be remembered with anything other than vanity. You will be honored by the birth of new life in spots where your feet are forever printed. You will be remembered by the unexplainable phenomenon that is existence. You will be remembered, and

the world will forgive you.

You will force leaves to fall off trees as you attempt the unconquerable quest of trying to always do right by others. You will cause water, once drinkable, to suddenly turn a color that cannot be trusted to consume. Most times, you will not notice the moments you steal a bit of color from the mountain tops- but sometimes you will, without a second thought, steal it anyways. You will take the peace from softly crashing ocean waves, even if it means taking the peace from others. You will do this because you do not know how to survive. You will do this because you cannot find peace in any other place, and your exhaustion will let you look no longer. You will do this because you are human.

​Maybe you wouldn’t be able to make it without these waves, maybe you would be just fine- but we often don’t know the answer until the thing we wish to save us has already been stolen. Perhaps the world will punish you for taking something meant to be free and trying to make it your own- but it will forgive you, anyway. It will take your mistakes and let them intertwine with new, untainted life. It will turn the dust you have stirred up into soil. It will let fresh water flow over the land you let dry.

​Forgiveness is the remembrance of the wrong that has been done, and the decision to let there be growth beyond it.

This growth is yours- and yours, alone. It does not have to include those who caused, those who helped, or those who watched the marks that haunt you be made. A single lily can grow to heights unseen, while the world watches with inexplicable adoration. There can be a dandelion and a daffodil planted side by side, determined to learn how to stop stealing water from the other. There can be a rose and a peony blossoming simultaneously, a field apart. They may no longer want to share the sunlight closely, but they do not wish for the other to be pulled from the earth.
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Forgiveness forces us to decide what pain is worthy of redemption.

​We will hurt others, and they will hurt us. We will be disoriented by our actions, and distraught by the acts of others. We will need forgiveness, just as much we will need to give it. To know that the world will forgive you, however, is to know that you are allowed to forgive yourself.
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You must forgive yourself.

To know that the world will let you try again, is to know that you can choose. You do not have to try again with those who have forced you to re-try. You can try again with those who have forced you to re-try. There will be the irredeemable, and there will be the salvageable. The world will forgive you, and with this, you will be given the gift of choice. You will be granted the opportunity to build a new path surrounded by new life. Each thing planted will need your permission to put down roots. You can hand-pick ever person allowed to walk down the unshakable roads that you will pave. You can decide to stop them at the gate, or you can choose to let them walk through. You can slam the metal shut shamelessly, or you can leave it slightly open. You will have the choice to build comfort unknown, create chaos unchallenged- or maybe even make a blend of both- but to master the art of peace, you must first master the art of forgiveness.

You will not leave this life unscathed, but you can leave this life rectified.



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