I recently broke my foot, a fracture that occurred as I missed a step on my front porch. The break occurred on the outside part of my foot- the fifth metatarsal. My doctor provided some good news in that I wouldn’t need a cast and I proceeded to adjust to my broken foot. Or so I thought. In deference to the pain on the outer perimeter of my foot I shifted my weight toward my other side, compensating for the damage.

By the following week later I had developed a new and more painful problem. I had stressed the unbroken part of my foot by placing an inordinate amount of pressure on it. I actually experienced more acute pain in that area than in the break itself. A month later the broken bone had essentially healed–but the damage I caused to the inner part of my foot still lingers. This is an issue of compensation. And nowhere does this tendency provoke more havoc than in our emotional and psychological lives.
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Let’s first define the word forgiveness. Webster defines forgiveness as: “to pardon; to give up resentment of; to cease to feel resentment against”. I also define it as “letting go; releasing oneself, emotionally from a negative experience in your life”. The words may sound relatively easy, it’s the actions of “giving up, releasing, and/or ceasing” that cause people the most difficulty. Forgiveness is NOT just about when others hurt us, it is also about when we have hurt someone else. Your work today is in two parts: first is about forgiving others, and the second is about forgiving yourself.

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