What We All Need Now Is Forgiveness
When so much is draining, certain words offer restorative power
My phone rang, and I saw a name that had come up only once in the past long, hard year. The name that flashed on the screen was that of a friend who I knew I’d hurt — not intentionally, but hurt nonetheless.
Maybe that’s worse, that I could hurt a friend through not protecting her enough at a time when she was already under great strain.
I answered, and my heart pounded.
She was reaching out to give me support in a time I need it with uncanny timing. As we caught up, eventually, she asked my forgiveness, and my breath caught. She said she was sorry for the things she thought and said about me when it all fell apart.
I was flabbergasted. I was the one who needed to apologize.
Finally, I got my words out, and between us, in the mingle between two people asking for forgiveness, a fragile, wounded thing began to braid itself together again.
Over the past year, most people I know reached some sort of breaking point. Between lockdown, political sparring, trying to survive a pandemic, keeping up with work and bills, and finding the stamina to just keep doing it, a lot of folks wanted to tap out. Over a year ago, Tara Haelle wrote…
