By Hannah Cedars
Forgiveness: The Quiet Road Back to Peace
Forgiveness is one of those words people throw around, but learning how to live it… that comes with bruises. It comes from wounds we didn’t ask for, betrayals we didn’t see coming, and disappointments from people who once held our trust in their hands. Some of the deepest cuts come from those who never feel an ounce of guilt for the pain they caused.
But here’s the part folks rarely talk about:
Forgiveness isn’t really for them. It’s for you.
Not because they deserve grace,
but because you deserve peace.
Holding hate, anger, or resentment is like drinking poison and hoping it harms someone else.
Your cells feel that bitterness.
Nerves stay tight.
The chest carries a pressure that never fully releases.
Your spirit stays clenched, waiting for a fight that never ends.
You’re the one who suffers — not them.
🌿 The Weight We Were Never Meant to Carry
Forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting, or excusing, or opening your door to someone who once shattered your trust. It doesn’t mean pretending the hurt didn’t happen. It simply means you refuse to let their darkness control your inner light.
Because the truth is, we’re all more than our biological bodies. We’re spirit first.
We come into this world wrapped in different wounds, different childhoods, different traumas, different patterns. Every single soul is carrying a story we cannot see from the outside.
People hurt others from their own unhealed places.
They lie from their fear.
People rage from their own shame.
They abandon because they never learned how to stay,
and they shut down because no one ever taught them emotional safety.
Understanding this doesn’t excuse anyone’s behavior —
it simply frees you from carrying their heaviness like it belongs to you.
Even the U.S. Surgeon General has spoken about the rising crisis of loneliness and emotional disconnection in modern life.
🌿Freeing Your Heart Without Forgetting the Past
Forgive, not because they earned it,
but because you’re choosing to live free.
Free from bitterness.
Stop your resentment.
Never again replay the same old memory over and over.
Free forever from the knots in your stomach when their name crosses your mind.
Forgiveness is the release of a burden that was never yours to keep.
Let yourself move forward.
Allow your spirit to expand again.
Let your heart breathe without that old weight tightening your chest.
Stay open-hearted.
Always choose kindness.
Stay soft in a world that worships hardness.
Softness isn’t weakness — softness is spiritual strength.
You deserve a peaceful heart, a steady breath, and to walk toward your future without dragging the past behind you..
Forgive not to absolve them —
but to unburden you.
If you’re new here, you can read more about my heart and my journey on my About page.
🌿 A Soft Word for You, Reader…
Here’s to you, dear soul —
the one who still feels deeply in a world that keeps trying to go numb.
Here’s to the open-hearted.
To the ones who bruise easily but love anyway.
For those who’ve been disappointed and still offer kindness, Not to mention,
to the souls who stay tender, even after life has scraped them raw.
Open-hearted people live life twice —
They live once when they walk through it,
and once again when they sit with the memory and let it soften into wisdom.
Pain writes through you.
Joy writes through you.
And your openness is not a weakness — it is your gift,
your compass,
your lantern in the dark.
If forgiveness feels impossible…, and if the memories still sting and the world feels closed, hurried, or indifferent, then
hold on to the truth of who you are.
Lanterns don’t dim themselves just because the ‘night is dark’. How that really works is :
Lanterns shine because the night is dark.
Keep shining.
Someone out there needs your light.
With a lanterns’ light,
Hannah Cedars
If you enjoy stories like this, you’ll love the other life lessons & memories I’m sharing on The Appalachian Sage. …………And if you’re ever in the mood to browse something pretty, you can stop by my Etsy shop, The Appalachian Sage Shop, where I pour the same love and kindness into each design.