Do you really let bygones be bygones?

I grew up feeling that mistakes were permanent on your record. Once you did something, no one would every forget, especially my father. It was always there in the background.

Now, he never forgave me, so that must have been part of it, but it made me think that I am unforgivable. That people would never forget and even if they said they forgave me, it would always be in the back of their minds—part of my permanent record, so-to-speak.

Time has a way of healing things, but time takes a long time—like years. Maybe decades. Maybe there isn’t enough time in a life to reach true forgetting of an event.

Anyway, I never forgive myself (although I do forget), and I don’t expect anyone ever really forgives me. Do you forgive? For real? Or do you say it but you keep it in memory, anyway?

Do you ever feel forgiven, truly? Do you believe you can be forgiven? If so, how is true forgiveness possible?