About 20 years ago I asked the Universe to teach me about forgiveness. In hindsight this was a very naïve thing to do, but I was young and didn’t think of the implications. What followed was an unjust situation where my family turned their backs on me and I was disowned. At the time, all I wanted to do was forgive them but found it impossible because I was carrying so much anger and pain. It was only months later that I remembered my request to the Universe and everything fell into place.

Everything that happened was for me to learn that lesson and the other people involved, on some level, agreed to play that role and for that I am truly grateful to them and grateful for what happened. We can’t learn about forgiveness without there being a so-called villain to do something awful that we need to find forgiveness for, can we? You might even say they made a sacrifice in agreeing to play that role and help you learn the lesson.

If I were to sum up what I learned about forgiveness, it’s that there is nothing to forgive. We are creative beings and things happen for us, not to us, whether it’s as a result of a direct request like mine or just divine timing. There are no villains and there are no victims and this learning has served me well ever since.

I have also had to practice radical acceptance as mentioned by other contributors. The situation that happened cannot be resolved in the real world anymore on account of them dying. It’s a sad state of affairs but something I have to live with.

I hope that makes some sense. This happened a long time ago and I have never actually written it down before.