Choose: Hatred or Forgiveness?

I should hate you, but to hate you is to poison me. Hatred is like murder, for when I hate I wish for your demise. I wish for bad things to happen to you, I wish for you to know my pain and watch in agony as you go about your life as normal. Do you even care? Do you even know? Would you care if you knew? I often burden myself with these questions when I give in to the taste of bitter heart poison and lie to myself that it tastes sweet as honey.

I should hate you, but I have another choice I can make. A choice that is more powerful than it looks and more freeing than I can believe. I do not have to forget what you did or pretend you didn’t do it, but it would be in my best interest to forgive, to lay down the burden of wishing you harm. An apology would help, but I’m not holding out hope for one. So I have to lay it down anyway, not forgetting what you did, but no longer desiring your harm or to harm you myself.

Forgiveness, at least at the start, looks bitter. It looks poisonous. But one little taste and I could find that it tastes sweet as honey and I won’t have to lie to myself about the taste.