A stranger told me a random story. Random because I was trying to figure out how the story pertained to me. She told me she read an article recently that polled 500 married couples and 500 divorced couples and both polls listed infidelity and financial arguments to be the top reasons for fights. Since I am neither married nor divorced, I didn't know what she was getting at, why she decided to share this information with me. And then she said, so really it comes down to love. If you're in it, there will always be things you're going to have to forgive. You'll always have to move forward from things that you can't forget, to let go.
It's not always so easy. If someone hurts you time and time again, you eventually learn your lesson and separate yourself from that person because isn't the simplest goal in life to be happy? No one wants to repeat history when all history does is break your heart. But then you realize there are times you don't have a choice. Just because you decide you don't want someone to be part of your life, you're only one part of that decision. The other belongs to that person and the third belongs to God.
So maybe I was told this random story by this strange lady for a reason. Maybe there are things I haven't been able to move forward from or let go of. Maybe there are things that are left to be figured out that don't need to be.
Or, maybe she thought I looked like someone who would be in it. As in, in it to the end. That I better chin up now because the road ahead will may be filled with some of the same. And it'll be up to me if I can choose to forgive into the future or pout around in the past. Guess I didn't realize that love is the easiest way to help make a decision, even if you aren't sure it's the decision you want to make. Even if it might hurt you. Even if it might change what the outcome might be. Love conquers all, she said. And at least that much is true, because that's not a choice. That's something that can happen whether you like it or not...
