Our religious and spiritual teachers encourage us to forgive, as if we know how to do that and naturally want to. Yet forgiveness is actually a complex and nuanced experience, especially complicated when great loss has resulted from an injury. How do people who have lost loved ones to murder, politically motivated violence, sexual abuse, mass murder, relate to the idea of forgiveness? What inspires some to consciously work towards a sense of forgiveness while others simply accept that some acts may, for them, be unforgivable? Does moving forward require forgiveness or is it rather an acceptanc
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