From the continuing series, “Experience the Miracle: Allowing Your Life Stories to Become Love Stories”
THE LETTER
She’d written the letter a hundred times in her head. Some versions were sharp, full of everything she wished she’d said in the moment. Others were softer, hoping for an apology that never came. But in all of them, she was still waiting—for the past to feel different, for the hurt to resolve itself into something fair, or at least tolerable.
When she finally sat down to write, the words didn’t come the way she expected. She didn’t list every wrong or argue her case. Instead, she found herself writing about the life she wanted. A life where she wasn’t bound to an old story, where she wasn’t shaped by resentment, where she didn’t have to keep proving how much it hurt.
She never sent the letter. It was always meant for her. And when she folded the paper and put it away, she felt something she hadn’t in years—relief. Not because everything was fixed, but because she wasn’t carrying resentment, grief, and regret around anymore—like rocks in a backpack—constantly turning them over in her mind, giving them her attention and energy, making them part of her identity.
The past hadn’t changed, but her place in it had—she was no longer standing in the middle of it, examining it from every angle, keeping it alive. For the first time, she wasn’t tethered to the story that kept her mesmerized and powerless. The moment she let go, she could finally step out of the past and into the peace of forgiving herself for incarcerating her spirit—for believing the past had the power to define her.
That was forgiveness. It wasn’t about fixing the past or deciding what anyone deserved. It was about releasing herself from the grip of a story—one she had been telling and retelling without realizing she could stop. It was about discovering she was free the moment she saw that her giving meaning to the pain was the only thing keeping it real.
And then, just like that, it was over. No dramatic moment, no grand resolution—just space. A gentle, steady presence where the noise had been. The past had nothing left to pull her back into, and without it, there was only now. And now was full of freedom.
Experience the miracle of allowing your life stories to become love stories.
