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It’s Time You Let You Off the Hook
The real meaning behind “Forget yes, forgive never”
When I first began writing this article, it was titled “Forgive Yes, Forget Never.”
It was about boundaries and empowerment. It was about forgiving them so you didn’t have to keep carrying around the hurt and pain. It was about not forgetting that they made a conscious choice of disrespect so you don’t let them back in to do it again. (Hurt me once, shame on you; hurt me twice, shame on me.)
But there was something more here — something underneath the strength (and what we’ve heard a thousand times) asking to be truly seen. And that was when a tear fell from my eye and I realized, who I really needed to forgive was me.
The first piece wasn’t a detour — it was the bridge.
I had to write from the wound to get to the liberation. I had to speak from power to touch tenderness. I had to walk through the fire of boundaries to find the quiet ache of self-abandonment.
And now I’ve done it. I flipped the conversation on forgiveness in a way I haven’t seen anyone else do.
Most people are still writing “10 steps to forgive your ex.” Meanwhile, I was over here saying,
