Absolution

I've recently gotten in touch with someone from my past... actually that's not entirely true. Someone from my past actually took time and effort to get in touch with me, and I am glad she did. One of the reasons being that something in my past that I didn't even think would ever come up again, let alone needed sorting out, surfaced. At the bottom of Sorry, I said that I intentionally hurt someone and that she deserved it. Well, this person found me, and she came back into town and we had lunch. We hadn't talked in about 10 years, and she asked me why we lost touch. She seemed genuine, and she told me she forgot why we ever grew apart. At the time, I lied and told her I forgot too. Anyway, she went back home and we corresponded here and there through the 'net. I wrestled with over the next few weeks whether or not I should have told her that it was because of me that our friendship ended, or just lie and insisted that I forgot as well. I decided that a friendship based on lies, even though it might have been a white one, was wrong. I have to live by my own words, "The right thing to do is most often the hardest thing to do." Like any healthy relationship, a solid friendship needs a solid foundation. I reasoned that if I told her truth and we could still be friends after, that would speak volumes about her current character and what type of person she had become. And if she never wanted to talk to me again, that would have been well within her right and I would have understood that too. Well, I bit the bullet and let her know the truth, having no idea how she would react. I expected the worst, but she gave me the best. She knew that she hurt my friends, but didn't know how deep she had cut them. I made the same types of mistakes when I was young. Through the ignorance of youth, and not fully realizing the consequences of actions, we both had hurt people. Growing older has allowed her to see what she did was indeed wrong, and in admission, apologized for her actions. I could do no less than accept the apology and return one of my own for intentionally hurting her. How could I not, having made the same types mistakes she did? I've paid for my mistakes, and she has as well. The catharsis was welcome, for both of us, and now we remain friends.

"There is nothing in a caterpliiar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly." - R. Buckminster Fuller