The Path to Recovery is Forgiveness?

"When a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive."
Alan Paton
S. African author (1903 - 1988)


I wonder if this is true.  I think I go back and forth in my own recovery (not substance/chemically-related), sort of the whole grief cycle.  It's really all about grieving what happened, what didn't happen, what we got or didn't get, who we thought someone was or we thought they'd be, losses of people, pets, places and places in time, like college days, high school days (never had to grieve h.s., though-was happy to see those days gone)...and because grief is a cycle, and there are many steps in that cycle, the forgiveness of others who have harmed me including forgiving myself seems to swap places quite often with sadness, remorse, guilt, shame, and anger.


I just hope that one day, I can get to a place where I get to the forgiveness stage faster and that it's a more consistent feeling regarding losses, people who have harmed me, and people I've harmed.


Even if others never forgive me for my transgressions, that'll be something I'll have to learn to accept.  As long as I find the way to forgiveness of myself and others, I'll be doin' ok.  :)