Sometimes you gotta let it go
I’m re-watching the gripping show Dopesick.
One of the stories is about a couple of parents who are having a hard time accepting that their daughter is gay. When she goes to the doctor for advice on the situation, he replies:
Forgive them. Love them. Be patient with them.
Then he adds that no matter what, she should live the life she wants. He says:
Sometimes you gotta let it go.
Letting go, the essence of forgiveness.
A new approach, a simple act - and yet often so very difficult. It's easy to confuse forgiveness with saying, "No problem, it's okay”. Which, of course, is not the case.
Forgiveness is seeing a situation for what it is, here and now, even when our whole body is screaming that it wants something else. Sometimes the situation will eventually change, and sometimes it won't.
But there is one thing that always changes when we manage to forgive, when we're finally able to let go:
How we feel inside.