unforgiveness
noun
/ʌnfə fəˈɡɪvnɪs/
- not willing to forgive or excuse people’s faults or wrongdoings
- anger or resentment towards someone for an offence, flaw, or mistake
- feel angry about or wish to punish an offence, flaw, or mistake
Dear Unforgiveness,
It’s so hard to say goodbye.
Holding onto you was how I punished the perpetrators of my hurt. It’s how I would mete out justice. Felt like if I let you go, they get away with it, and that just made me angry as hell.
But you’re too heavy for my shoulders, comrade. I don’t get to keep you and be free from pain, too. How’s that work? How’s joy and love and peace live in the same house as vengeance and resentment and bitterness?
The weight of your presence makes me a prisoner.
The wrongdoing isn’t mine to punish – you had me believing I was qualified to play judge and executioner, but I won’t be fooled anymore – I have better things to do than to hate the people who (and the things that) stole my joy from me.
Even sans apologies – I choose to forgive.
I acknowledge all the harm done against me, but I will not be held hostage by it!
This is for my emotional wellness. This is for victory.
Listen man, I’m not about to be besties with the people who hurt me, but I can release them from the really big, really unhealthy room they’ve occupied in my heart.
And I’m forgiving me, too. Yes – I forgive myself – over and over again. I am worthy of that bit of kindness.
This is farewell, and I’ve sealed it with a prayer and a mustard seed.
So then, goodbye, old friend.
And good riddance!
Weight-less and free,
Dusty
“Hard time forgiving/ Even harder forgetting/ Before you do something/ You might regret friend/ This time I will be/ Louder than my words/ Walk with lessons that/ Oh, that I have learned/ Show the scars I’ve earned/ In the light of day/ Shadows will be found/ I will hunt them down.” Seinabo Sey, Hard Time
“People withhold their forgiveness, thinking that it makes them badass. But really, the unwillingness to forgive is merely the wishing that things were better. You wish that you had better, you wish that someone else were better so they could have treated you better… it’s you making wishes. And that’s not badass. To forgive is to be able to look at the person and say “I accept that you weren’t any better than what you were”, “I accept that you were you and couldn’t have been what I wished you to be”, “I accept that things were the way they were and weren’t any better.” The ability to forgive is intertwined with the ability to accept the reality of the way things are/ the way a person is or was. You stop wishing things and you just accept. And hope is what says to you: “One day you’ll have what’s better.”
― C. JoyBell C.
theDustySoulDiary 