If you sit in a rocking chair and rock slowly you will never go anywhere. Likewise, if you rock fast, you will never go anywhere. But you will sweat, and worry, and develop blisters on your hands from gripping the handles so hard. Anger is like that. If you hold on to it, it will get you nowhere.
Grudges and anger go hand in hand. One does not exist without the other—find an angry person and you will no doubt find something, or some things, incidents, events, people, persons, that/who they cannot forgive. Why is that? Forgiveness is not the same thing as forgetting … people don’t forget being hurt … but they can move beyond the sting and even rise above the desire to hate someone else for their wrongdoing.
“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” ~ Buddha
Most people, however, while they like to think they don’t hold grudges—because, well, saying you forgive someone sounds far more lofty than saying you don’t—most of us do not have the inner strength, even courage if you will, to forgive others their misgivings, especially when they have done something that directly caused you to suffer. But that’s when we need to recognize the difference between forgiveness and forgetting. Forgiveness allows us to move on. It doesn’t heal the pain or blur the memory of hurt but it obliterates anger. And in my humble opinion, anger is a waste of emotion. While it should be acknowledged, it should also be disregarded as a complete and total waste of one’s energy. Because anger will destroy you … it will melt you. I’ve seen it—you’ve probably seen it …and it isn’t pretty. Besides, rocking chairs are meant for leisure, not for worry.
“Anger sucks. And it only leads to hate. And nothing good ever comes from hate.” Me : )
Cover image from Pexels’ free library.
DISCLAIMER: I’m a writer and an editor. And I try my best to make sure every post is articulate and free from errors. However, being that I edit my own work—and it’s next to impossible to properly edit your own work—I admit, occasionally there may be an error or two I miss. But doing so doesn’t make me an idiot so don’t be mean. Just smile, pat yourself on the back for finding an error and be glad you’re not the only one who makes mistakes sometimes … xoxox
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