freedom

He would say things like, __ut you are my wife!_ when I didn__ do something that he wanted me to do. His expectations were not realistic.

I never thought that freedom would feel so much like grief.

Being married definitely took work. When we fought, I felt like I wanted to float away and drown, whereas before I knew I could walk away without any strings attached.

Later that day when I walked down this dried-out riverbed, enjoying the last rays of sunshine on my bare skin, I felt a deep inner peace coming up straight from my heart.

How could any boy know that freedom is lost the moment you become a man. Things start to count. To press in. Constricting slowly, inevitably, creating a cage of inconveniences and duties and deadlines and failed plans and lost friends.

The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer. In seeking the Bird's death to free himself, Louie had chained himself, once again, to his tyrant. During the war, the Bird had been unwilling to let go of Louie; after the war, Louie was unable to let go of the Bird.

Among other possibilities, money was invented to make it possible for a foolish man to control wise men; a weak man, strong men; a child, old men; an ignorant man, knowledgeable men; and for a dwarf to control giants.

It's not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people. But it is such a powerful place, because it frees you.

Forgiveness of sins is great, but I'd rather have the ability to quit doing the things I keep needing forgiveness for.

Forgiveness is a process that we have to learn to act upon daily. Anger is weakened by forgiveness. When you forgive, you free yourself from carrying around the torment that the offense has caused you.

Forgiveness is the process of dropping off your emotional baggage.

When you forgive somebody, it__ not so much for them as it is for you. You need to be free from that. And you need to rise above that.

When you forgive yourself, you free yourself from memories which aren__ serving you anymore.

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.

In the closing of this chapter, Lutzer describes the choice of forgiveness in more detail: 'Without both honesty andforgiveness, there can be no freedom from the fits of rage.'What happens through the years when such anger is left unattended or is unresolved (or forgiveness is not pursued)? Without forgiveness, does the anger dissipate or possibly fade away? I don__ think so; but instead, anger continues in one__ life and is carried into their adulthood. What kind or level of control can manifest (or grow) in this unresolved anger; and as for the person or carrier, what can be expected of their heart and soul?

When you forgive, you free your soul. But when you say I'm sorry, you free two souls.

Self-hatred is self-imprisonment. Self-forgiveness is self-liberation. You have the right to suppress yourself, oppress yourself and depress yourself. You have the right to impress yourself too. Feel happy!

People tended to forgive only partially. They forgave in order to, one day, get a chance to remind those they__ forgiven about their failings. They forgave to feel righteous. That__ why forgiveness was so painful _ because it meant conceding. It meant letting go of her case without a rebuttal. True forgiveness knew no justice. It was liberating, most probably_ but freedom comes at a cost. Freedom is never free.