*Forgiveness and Love*

Love doesn’t keep score.  

It doesn’t write our mistakes in permanent ink.  

Forgiveness is love choosing to stay  

when it would be easier to walk away.  

It’s the hand that reaches back out  

after the door was slammed.  

It’s not forgetting the hurt.  

It’s remembering it,  

and still deciding: _you matter more than this pain._  

Love says “I see you.”  

Forgiveness says “I still see you.”  

It’s apologizing without excuses.  

It’s listening without defending.  

It’s watering a plant you once let go dry,  

believing it can bloom again.  

Forgiveness doesn’t mean the wound was small.  

It means the love was bigger.  

It means we’d rather build a bridge  

than live on separate islands.  

Because hearts were never meant to carry grudges forever.  

They were meant to hold each other.  

So we let go.  

Not because it didn’t matter,  

but because love does.  

And in that letting go,  

we both get free.