Some people call it holding a grudge when you stop volunteering for the same injury.

You can forgive someone and still remove their access to you.

That isn’t cruelty.
It isn’t revenge.
And it sure as hell isn’t bitterness.

It’s pattern recognition.

You remember what happened. You believe what they repeatedly showed you. And you finally stop handing them another opportunity just because they arrived carrying an apology and the emotional equivalent of gas-station flowers.

Compassion doesn’t require amnesia.

You can hope they heal without letting them practice on you. You can understand their damage without offering yours as company. You can love who they were—or who you thought they might become—and still lock the damn door.

Forgiveness may lighten what you carry.

Boundaries decide what gets carried back inside.

— Saint Dirty Face™

Stay Dirty. Stay You.