Forgiveness has been on my mind because 1.) It's a big ask for my BS (although he forgives me); 2.) It is critical in moving forward that I learn to forgive myself; 3.) I forgive, or aim to forgive, AP and anyone else who lashed out in response; and 4.) It dovetails with empathy practices done in my meditation group.

http://www.thebookoflife.org/on-forgiveness/

The path to forgiveness always begins in the same place: with the recognition of one’s own sinful nature. Certainly one may never have done this or that truly dreadful thing upon which one’s sense of outrage currently rests. But, so the forgiving attitude insists, one has done something, indeed many things that are on a continuum with, or in some ways related to, the horrors one is currently condemning with force. One might never have cheated on a tax form, physically hurt anyone or directly stolen someone’s property, but one has – inevitably – told lies and hurt, deceived and humiliated, bullied and evaded; one has been guilty of a thousand everyday sins endemic to us all. A clean conscience is only a possibility for the callously unimaginative. To get by, we all need to rely on the forgiveness of countless others – ex-partners, parents, colleagues, friends – people who did not at a variety of moments exact the full revenge that might have been their due. Our survival is predicated on a great many others having – at key moments – cut us some slack.