Atonement

Forgiveness is a difficult subject for most people. My perspective on forgiveness has changed over the years. I grew up non-denominational Christian and the general consensus was to forgive others just like Jesus forgave your sorry ass. I held onto that and let many people do horrible things to me and “forgave” them because it was what I was taught. That got old. So like any other recovering people pleaser I decided to hold on to grudges stronger than Black people hold onto Obama. I never fucking apologized and I never really accepted apologies and lowkey I wasn’t getting the apologies that I deserved because I wasn’t giving out the apologies that people deserved.

Whew! Baby a hot ass mess. But I’m on my “enlightenment journey” or whatever so I am owning my shit and I am asking for forgiveness. With forgiveness, an important piece that people seem to leave out is that there SHOULD be some sort of atonement. It’s the reason why America is on fire right now. And rightfully so. No matter what you believe in, energy is always exchanged. What America has done to Black people for over 400 years is finally biting America in the fucking ass. Mostly because America did NO atoning. The crimes committed against the Black and Native communities have been atrocious. And America is finally in the starting points of getting a taste of their own medicine.

Soooo wtf does atonement have to do with you and the hurt you’ve caused other people? First, if you owe someone an apology please just fucking apologize. It will let you will feel better and kinda get that sinking feeling out of your stomach. Then when you finally apologize and ask for forgiveness, ask how you can atone the situation. Ask them what you can do to make things right. Sometimes they are angry and there is nothing you can do. Sometimes it’s something that you really don’t want to do. Or something that you can’t do for them But it’s a start to a conversation on how you can mend the relationship.

I mean a lot of this does not apply to people that you never want in your life again or you were mutually fucked up for each other. But I just want you to ponder on the thought of atonement next time you are asking for forgiveness or the next time someone ask for forgiveness from you.