Forgiveness

(this is the Chinese character for "forgiveness")

(1) How many of you have never done any mistake? (If you raise your hand or nod, congratulations, you just make one).
(2) How many of you have done some mistakes that you wish you could turn back the clock and undo it?
(3) How many of you have done mistakes, stuck mourning them and find it difficult to let go?
(4) How many of you have done mistakes but move on reminding yourself to grow wiser so that you don't repeat them?

I used to act like (1) when I was younger. I always have plentiful of reasons and excuses to explain why on what I did so they seemed fair to myself (not caring if they are making any sense to anybody) and I can feel no guilt for whatsoever that I have done. Wrong doing? People made me, not my fault. I am so innocent (luckily I did not do something big).

And then I moved on to (2) when I grew older when I realize how good if I am given another chance to remake my decision. I would be wiser and make the better choice i.e. to hurt others less, to take back my temper, to hold my tongue, to be patient and listen to people before jumping to the conclusion.

As soon as I gone through stage (1) and (2), most of the negative feelings actually came punish me inside. I started to have low morale going through (3) stage. I kept going back to the scene where the hurts happened and repeat feeling the pain rather than let it go. And the memories kept coming back haunting me so that I remember the worse kind of emotion whenever that particular part of myself felt helpless and vulnerable.

Slowly as I learn more about understanding, not only on others but also myself, I realize the only thing we can do about things we have done before is by the (4) way.

we are equal. We travel this journey of life, not a perfect being but taking the experiences to realize what wisdom really is. And because we are not perfect so we need to have the awareness to constantly reminding ourselves about growing wiser.

In other words, we ought to forgive. We can never go far if we are burdened by the past. What's done is done, we could be naive when we were there but what matters is we realize that now. Realizing the truth of our past allows us to understand that we have a lot to learn and the only way of getting there is to let go of whatever has become history.

Let us learn to not repeat the same mistake, forgive what has happened and believe in the effort of improving ourselves. Say sorry with our heart and forgive, let bygones be bygones and move on. Things may not seem easy but believe that time heals if you open your heart to let it enter.

Have faith in the heart of love, believing that with every little positive step that we make we are becoming better.

Let your journey be easier by forgiving the people, including yourself, who've caused you pain because forgiveness is not for other people. We do it for ourselves - to get well and move on.