Forgiveness

Photo by Bstad on Pixabay

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,
how to interface with outer worlds, or even
if we can repair the broken pane.

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.

They 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, 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 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’ anddonare ‘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)