Hurt

It was sudden. It was shocking. It was unexpected. And it hurt. Deeply.

No one goes through life without hurt. Without pain. Without suffering. And no one wants the hurt. The pain. The suffering. But it is the hard part of living that offers a choice. A choice in how to respond.

We can choose to leave the past in the past. The past can’t be changed or undone. We can start fresh. We all make mistakes and no matter what someone has said or done, the past cannot be changed. No amount of regret will undo something that was done or said.

I know that if I choose to hold onto a past hurtful action that I am only hurting myself. I may even hurt others.

By holding onto the hurt I become the one doing the hurting. The past, that event or incident that cannot be changed, cannot be left to rule the present or the future.

Sometimes it can be hard to let go and start over because it seems that letting something go would somehow diminish the hurt that was said or done. For me, it takes time to reconcile the hurt with a simple and necessary act. The simple and necessary act of forgiveness.