The Olive Branch

Forgiveness sets you free, so they say, but this is easier said than done. We all know that some things can be impossible to forgive.

Still, forgiveness releases us. While a person who forgives anything may seem a tad generous, accomplishing it breaks open the shackles of hatred and anger. It takes a lot of unnecessary energy to be angry.

We have come to the part of the year when forgiveness becomes a precious gift for the person we are forgiving and ourselves. Let’s extend the olive branch for us.

The olive branch extended

Unwraps vines from hands and feet

All released, broken cords amended

Branch of olives from hands so giving

May seem at once too kind

When crows grasp, a misgiving

To bring branch forward, hands will ache

With all-encompassing pain

Knowing the wounded soul at stake

Branch of steel breaks apart

Shackles that resent

Made of copper, resilient, hard

Release from bonds of steel, relief

No tears of wrathfulness

Shudders of grief

Pardon from the branch of olives

Unties the vines of hate that bind

Soothes the soul as a gift

Gift given so all may live.