Forgiveness Can Be Bittersweet
Weekly Column By Sharon Salzberg for On Being
Published August 17th, 2015
Forgiveness is not a single action, but a process.
This is not to say that forgiveness is easy. It cannot be rushed or engineered, but it may arrive over time.
Forgiveness can be bittersweet. It contains the sweetness of the release of a memory that has caused you so much suffering, but it is also a poignant recognition that relationships shift so much in the course of our lives that perhaps we cannot reclaim the way we were to each other in the past. Whatever decision we come to about action in daily life, in the end, forgiveness is a path to peace and a powerful and important component of love.
Sharon Salzberg
To read the entire article visit the On Being Blog.
About On Being with Krista Tippett
On Being is a Peabody Award-winning public radio conversation and podcast, a Webby Award-winning website and online exploration, a publisher and public event convener. On Being opens up the animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live?
On Being is the home of the Civil Conversations Project, an emergent approach to new conversation and relationship across the differences of our age. On Being’s listeners, readers, and online communities cross boundaries that separate them in the culture at large: generational, socioeconomic, political, religious. They report that On Being equips them to relate in fresh, new ways to different others, and emboldens them to engage in new kinds of service.
On Being airs on more than 330 public radio stations across the U.S., distributed by American Public Media. The podcast reaches a global audience via SoundCloud.
Krista Tippett is a Peabody Award-winning broadcaster and New York Times bestselling author. In 2014, she received the National Humanities Medal at the White House for “thoughtfully delving into the mysteries of human existence. On the air and in print, Ms. Tippett avoids easy answers, embracing complexity and inviting people of all faiths, no faith, and every background to join the conversation.”
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