I used to be a different person. Somewhat. I used to have hate in my heart. I was competitive, I was aggressive, I was mean. There was a point in my life where self gratification – of the immediate variety – was all I cared about.

Then I woke up.

I realized that every single person affects your life – one way or another – every single interaction has contributed to the character you have and the person you are. More so, you affect other people, the mistakes you make in your own life will in one way or another come back to you and to the people you care about. Maybe not immediately, but in the long run – consequences for your actions are abundant in their strength and their variety.

There are people I know who haven’t woken up.

These people continue to (seemingly) think that the mistakes they make are forever forgivable. That no matter how many times they mess up, the people around them will continue to forgive. I’ve said this to some people in the my life before – everyone has a breaking point. It just takes one time, one thing – maybe it’s small, maybe it’s life changing. But there will be one thing that will be irreversible and unforgivable.

Now, I say this having forgiven people for the most ridiculous things, for evil things, for (as my friend M.T. would say) non-human things. Mostly because I still naively believe that everyone is good. That even in the most evil of people – the people that have done deliberately hurtful things – there is a good side. There is a good heart screaming out to be discovered.

However, my naiveness (yes, that’s now a word) ends with forgiveness. It doesn’t extend to forgetting. It doesn’t extend to continued tolerance of disgusting behavior. Because forgetting it would be the same as encouraging it. I appreciate all the people that have forgiven me for the things I’ve done wrong, but MORE SO I am grateful that it was never encouraged.

I will end this post on a positive note – your life’s work should be to have a good and warm heart. You should do and say good things to good people and be surrounded by goodness. It makes it easier to be happy and at the end of the day, what’s a life without happiness?