Forgiveness

For years on end, I've held onto my anger.

For years on end, I've simmered in my resentment.



Never truly letting go, the past becomes a poison shackle.

How to be free when I am the one chaining myself?



I claimed to have let go, to have moved on from what happened.

But the truth is one thing that always gets revealed in the end.



The truth is, I never moved on.

The truth is I never let it go.



All the pain and suffering I experienced at your hands left a scar.

A scar so deep and profound, that I forgot how to forgive.



Now, after so many years have passed, I sit alone in the place it all happened.

I sit and ponder the past as I gaze at pictures from that time.



Why did you do it all?

Why did you act as you did?



I will never know because death has already claimed you as His own.

I know that you must have had your reasons, but it is not for me to know what those reasons were.



As time goes on, I begin to realize that the past is the past.

It is set in stone and cannot be changed.



But the future is vast and unknown.

So full of possibilities and opportunities



You hurt me badly, but I now know that I also hurt you.

It is time to let it all go.



So, I will give you the one thing I never thought I would.

I give my forgiveness.



I forgive you for the pain you caused.

I forgive you for all the hurt and abuse.



I forgive you the times you neglected me and the times you punished me for things I never did.



And I forgive myself.



I forgive myself for hurting those around me.

For they did not deserve it.



I forgive myself for the trouble I caused, never taking others into consideration.



On this day, I let go of what happened.

On this day, I release all my anger, pain, and resentment.



On this day, I forgive it all.



I will never forget what happened.

The scars run much too deep to forget.



But I will forgive and, thus, move on with my life.

Life is too short to hold onto the past.

One can never truly heal so long as they keep themselves shackled by it.



And so, I release it. I banish the poison I laced in my life by holding on to the negative side.

I release myself from these self-made shackles and take my leave of my self-imposed imprisonment.



I forgive.

I forgive it all.