To forgive does not mean overlooking the offense and pretending it never happened. Forgiveness means releasing our rage and our need to retaliate, no longer dwelling on the offense, the offender, and the suffering, and rising to a higher love. It is an act of letting go so that we ourselves can go on. . . .
For in the end I knew: There is no healing without forgiveness, no forgiveness without love. Indeed, love is everything.
— Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter