A gift for yourself

Forgiving.
It’s amazing.
The perfect gift to give yourself.

Think of it as letting go of some emotional clutter.

Accept the fact you can’t change the past. 
No matter how many times you go over the story in your mind.
No matter how righteously indignant you are about how you were wronged.
No matter how many people might agree with your version of the event.
No matter how long ago or how deep the hurt: 
You can’t change the past.

Just so we’re clear:
Forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting, 
or pretending that you weren’t hurt by what was said or done, 
or that a relationship wasn’t changed or damaged by what transpired.

Forgiving does mean that you can reclaim some emotional space in your life.  
You can learn from what happened to set some clearer boundaries with people. 
You could consider that it might not have been about you at all; that it was their stuff, 
and you just happened to have caught it when they were throwing it around.

Just as physical clutter takes up space in our lives, 
emotional clutter gets in our way too. 
It usually isn’t as obvious as the piles, stacks or over flowing basket,
but still keeps us from having the life we truly want.