Sorry

Maya Angelou: Well, I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live you will make mistakes. It is inevitable. Only the angels, the cherubim, and about three rocks don't make mistakes. You're going to do that.

But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, "I'm sorry," to the people who you think you may have injured, and then you say to yourself, "I'm sorry," and then you can like yourself again.

Quite often if we hold onto the mistake we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror, so we can't see what we're capable of being. It is equally important to see the mistake and to forgive oneself for it. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self.

I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now when a larger society sees you as unattractive, as a threat, as too black or too white, or too poor, or too fat, or too sexual, or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.

So, I think my blessing has been that I have been able to see a lot of my mistakes, and I've been able to forgive a lot of them and try to become better the next time."

Rewind

Wounded deeply; blue and lost. Can’t see inside the box—locked by me.

I hurt you.

Is it beyond repair? Is there hope? Can I get you back?

Are you still there?

Entrusted to me—I dropped you. You shattered and then I told you where to put the broken pieces (as if I knew).

Emotional Frankenstein of my making;

You love me, you hate me.

You want to please me and punish me.

You rage, you cry.

Little boy lost, betrayed and forced into hiding…can’t remember how to be you anymore.

Angry, guilty;

sad and confused.

How can I help without forcing again?

I love you, I love you, I love you.

Forgive me or not.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

Look at me with those blue injured eyes…I had a perfect gift, I didn’t mean to tarnish.

God help us both--finding what was lost; finding the original, unbroken, healed and happy.

New again.

Start again.

Rewind.

You were always perfect just as you really are—

I played God;

And created a monster sadness.

--J.S.

I felt this was somehow appropriate to follow your last post, MR...