Never underestimate the power of an apology

I was thinking yesterday morning about how fragile love is. Love is supposed to be eternal, everlasting, unconditional. But when it involves two humans, it rarely is any of those things.

Love between humans must be nurtured, handled gently and carefully. Water it, feed it and sing softly to it like your favorite potted plant.

Yes, it’s about that ridiculous if you think about it. So why do we want to go to all that trouble? Why do we go to great lengths for love?

Forgiveness is the final form of love.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr

Because to love is to be alive. Love adds color to our world and a special brightness to those colors. Love is the element that makes life just a little better, a little brighter. As Shakespeare said, “It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.”

Do you remember that scene from Disney’s Bambi? Who doesn’t want to feel twitterpated? It’s AWESOME!

But. Except. There’s one exception.

If love is one-sided, it is more like a bad case of influenza. In extreme cases, it can put you in your grave. If it doesn’t actually kill you, you wish it would.

But I digress…

So, I wondered, if love is so fragile, how do some humans make it last?

Then it struck me that an apology for wrongs done has miraculous restorative power.

A sincere and heartfelt apology goes a long way toward erasing the inevitable hurts in human relationships, whether between lovers or friends.

If you don’t want to go through life alone, you might want to learn how to say, “I’m sorry,” and really mean it.