<strong>"Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different"</strong>

<em>What this quote means to me:</em>
I first came across this quote about a year before I met the love of my life. My previous relationship had been a long one, and had been challenging. And although I knew I never wanted to rekindle the relationship, I somehow hadn't let it go. But hearing this quote was one of the things that helped to me to let go.

What I love about this quote is the use of the words 'hope' and 'past' in the same sentence. Hope is a word relating to the future, so you <em>can't</em> hope that the past were different. But that is exactly what I had been doing. Understanding this allowed me to move on.

And that is why when I recall this quote I remember it a little differently, and more broadly:
<blockquote>"Moving on ... is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different"</blockquote>

And this more broadly has helped me overcome a few other ideas that I had clung to; mainly, regret for bad decisions. 
