Summary

The text discusses the concept of forgiveness as a form of self-love and empowerment to overcome past pains and reclaim one's life narrative.

Abstract

The article "Forgiveness" delves into the transformative power of self-forgiveness as the ultimate act of self-love. It describes how external events, particularly those involving betrayal and injustice, can shatter one's perception of the world, leading to a state of inner turmoil and disruption of balance. The author emphasizes that the responsibility to rewrite one's internal narrative, despite the scars left by such events, lies within oneself. Forgiveness is not about absolving others of their wrongdoings but about offering oneself love and compassion to move beyond suffering. It is a commitment to personal freedom from the constraints of past traumas, allowing individuals to alter the trajectory of their lives. The etymology of the word "forgive" is also explored, reinforcing the idea of giving wholeheartedly to oneself.

Opinions

The author believes that the balance between one's inner and outer worlds is crucial and can be disrupted by negative external events.
It is expressed that the impact of traumatic events can lead to a distorted self-perception, akin to having permanent scars or tattoos.
The article suggests that individuals have the power to heal and rewrite their life stories, emphasizing personal agency in the healing process.
Forgiveness is redefined not as a pardon for others' actions but as a self-directed act of love that liberates one from pain and suffering.
The author conveys that forgiveness is an internal process of self-empowerment, freeing oneself from self-imposed cages and enabling a positive change in one's life course.
The etymological exploration of "forgive" serves to underscore the act of giving to oneself with sincerity and completeness.

Forgiveness

the ultimate self-love: the power to change our life

We all have a small window within us, through which we have an access to the world. The window allows us to see, smell, taste, hear, touch, and feel what it is to us.

Our windows

We constantly make its access from minimal to maximal, wide open. Some fears projected from past experiences, the pains of the past, or the optimism towards the future may affect the degrees of its opening. All the contexts around us; our experiences and learning from them may affect this opening.

As long as we manage the views of the outer worlds and maintain healthy relationships with them, our inner worlds balance them by processing all the passages through our windows. We constantly make peaceful inner sceneries and landscapes in a balance between the two worlds.

But imagine that something happens: a violent incidence or subtle yet repetitive events, lies or betrayals by someone who we trust in our outside worlds robs, violates, breaks our windows, or cunningly takes advantage of us that are not our faults.

Then our inner worlds are shuttered, totally ruined, not functioning. The balance between the two worlds no longer exist, and we don’t know what to do.

Inside the encasement, we’re in pieces trembling, the landscapes of us become shadowed in the dark. We stop our mouth and can no longer help ourselves from feeling guilty and shameful yet we know what transpired was not our faults

Perceptions

These horrible sceneries, the landscape of us, once they are formed through our broken windows, no matter how unfairly and badly caused by intruders, need to be re-written by us, the owners of the pictures, not by assaulters or any one else. This is the hardest and the severest fact that we have to face. The openings were taken down in injustice and the ever-lingering impacts of the events, and the emotions were forever torn and sunken into the pictures.

They become like the tattoos on our skin that wouldn’t come off. Then, we see ourselves as the tattoos. From the tattoos, we deepen the wounds and form permanent scars if needed.

These are the tricks of our perceptions if we let them grow as if the sceneries taught us in deluded deceptions.

Since these haunting sceneries were held in us, we are the only ones to fix and replace them. By committing it, we can rise from these shadowed landscapes. The courage to heal from all the unwanted stories. We have the power to re-write our Stories to empower ourselves. Because we are who we are. We can draw our pictures and sceneries of us, and the beauty of us again.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness from its origin of the word* is to “give wholeheartedly.”

Forgiveness is not to pardon or release the events or the people that betrayed us or caused us pains, from their guilt, or reconcile with them, but for us to wholeheartedly offer ourselves our own love to release us from all the pains, sufferings and helplessness

Forgiveness is to commit us to free ourselves from all the framework we impose ourselves to be caged.

It’s the power within and for us to alter the course of our life. …

Love

Forgive: Latin predonare ‘forgive’ was a compound verb formed from per- ‘thoroughly’ and donare ‘give’ (underlying sense was ‘give wholeheartedly’). These two elements were then translated into the prehistoric Germanic word, fergeban, which eventually formed in the English term, forgive. (ref: Dictionary of Word Origins by John Ayto)

Thank you Diana C. for publishing and hosting my prose/poem on your fabulous platform, Know Thyself, Heal Thyself.

Thank you Dr Mehmet Yildiz Donna L Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff) David Rudder Lanu Pitan Michael Burg, MD (AKA Medium Michael Burg) Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) Pierre Trudel Claire Kelly Tree Langdon Agnes Laurens Dr. Fatima Imam Ece Uyguç Dr Michael Heng Dennett Trista Signe Ainsworth Carol Burt Spyder Alberto García 🚀🚀🚀 James G Brennan Nombuso Makhubu Yana Bostongirl Elvie Lins Jill (Conquering Cognitions) Kate Sutherland afzal khan TC Hails Amy Marley Dave Logan Margie Willis and other writers and readers for your warm support and reading.