The Sweet Scent of Forgiveness
"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet
sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
- Mark Twain
It's hard -very hard-to forgive someone who has violated your trust or crushed your spirit. But human beings actually have an amazing capacity for forgiveness. I will never forget the episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in which a mother forgave the man who murdered her child. How did she do it, I wondered. Her heart must be the size of several football fields. But then I realized it is the most beautiful way to make peace with something that cannot be undone. It does not erase the wrong, but it succeeds in casting a veil of beauty over it. Rather than lashing out and living with bitterness, the mother preserved her own dignity and that of her lost loved one.
TODAY IF SOMEONE HURTS ME, I WILL FORGIVE AND PRESERVE THE BEAUTIFUL.