I found out today that big girls really do cry sometimes. For some reason we as a society have pinned crying as a child's activity and that as we grow older the less we are supposed to cry. If you ask me this doesn't make much sense, (like many things that we adults think we've got pegged) Because when you think about it, the older we get the more the years past by and the more experiences we gain and not all of those experiences will be things that are great and make us laugh, smile or even stop and think, honestly the majority of those experiences will be teachers that will knock us down, run us over and hurt us worse than we could have imagined, a lot of times more than we think we could handle. It is only natural that the more we remove the rose colored glasses that we were born with, and the world becomes a more gritty and grimy but also real place the more we have reason to cry.
When we hold those tears in and we bury the anger the disappointment the frustration and it becomes hardened in our hearts. If you ask me, (and because you are reading this I assume that you are asking me) this is the precise reason we have so many bitter people walking around hurting others. Hurt to me is an epidemic, one that you either choose to take the hard path of curing through learning to forgive, crying it out, standing up again, and ultimately not being afraid to fall,...or you choose what seems to be the easy road which is take the hurt you've experience and hurt someone else in hopes that it will make you feel better and protect you from ever experiencing it again. The problem with the latter is that when we take that road it never leads us anywhere productive. It only gives us the illusion that the only way to protect ourselves from hurt is to keep everyone around us at arms length , never take chances, and hurt others before they have the chance to hurt us.

Forgiveness to me is the greatest gift that can be given. Whether we give this gift to someone else or they give it to us or even better if we give it to ourselves it is an amazing gift. The more you give of it the more you get from it. Every time we take the chance at forgiving someone, or ourselves we take a big step at letting go of the hurt that went along with the offense, taking steps to learn to laugh love and trust again. If we don't allow ourselves to cry then we are holding in the hurt and refusing to forgive, in actuality this is the childish thing to do, to hold everything inside and dismiss the person who hurt you. It takes a true strong adult to stand up and forgive and go out on a limb to trust again. Honestly you aren't helping yourself or the other person by not letting them know how they hurt you,..allowing them to see the tears and hear whats inside of you and then forgiving them.
Forgiveness is also not an overnight thing, its not something that can just be accomplished by saying a few simple words. It takes time and a lot of patience. So go for it, give it a try!