Where Forgiveness Starts

WHERE FORGIVENESS STARTS

I started on a trip today
Into my heart of hearts
A journey to find the precise place
Where forgiveness starts

Exactly what had come between us,
To part my brother and I?
Sometimes I really can’t remember
Just what it was, or why

So I took a journey today
Into my heart of hearts
Looking for this illusive place
Where my forgiveness starts

I replayed all the memories
We had made through childhood
And the times we spent together
With friends in the old neighborhood

My journey took me deeper
Into my heart of hearts
Deeper than I’d dared to go
To learn where forgiveness starts

I remembered all the times
We had laughed and joked and played
Summer days spent at the park
Or marching in parades

My journey still continued
Deeper through my heart of hearts
And then I finally saw it:
Where forgiveness starts

A darkened door with lock and chain
The key nowhere in sight
I knew I had to find it
To set everything back right

My journey took me closer
To the door within my heart
And I peeked in through the keyhole
To glimpse where forgiveness starts

And there upon a tiny hook
Right there beside the door
Appeared the key for which I’d searched
It warmed me to the core

My journey finally neared its end
This journey through my heart
This trip I’d forced myself to take
To where forgiveness starts

I opened up this new found door
Entered the tiny space
And found forgiveness was always mine
But locked here in this place

My journey finally over
To unlock my heart of hearts
I was ready now to make amends
From where forgiveness starts

Picking up my pen I thought
“A letter to begin”
And wrote some words in my attempt
His forgiveness to win

And as my letter flies to him
To reach his heart of hearts
A journey he himself must take
To find where forgiveness starts



Note:  I chose the changing colors of the verses from colder blues to warmer reds to indicate the gradual warming of my heart as I searched for a way to forgive my brother.