Where forgiveness is truly sought, my heartfelt response is to want to offer it. However, I've spent time dealing with people who apologise when they don't mean it in order to have further opportunities to cause harm. Forgiveness isn't owed, it has to be earned.

There are a lot of people who say that you have to forgive to heal. I don't believe this at all. You have to work through your feelings, process your pain and anger, and figure out how to make peace with it for yourself. Whether that includes forgiving a person who harmed you, is really your call to make. 

It is possible to forgive someone without also giving them a second chance. Forgiveness can be part of a letting go process. No one is owed a second chance by someone they've hurt.

Forgiving someone is not a kindness or a virtuous act if you're just enabling them to do harm, to you, to themselves or to others. Standards and boundaries also matter.

We all mess up. We're all flawed, complicated life forms, and even when we're doing our best, we don't know everything. We can make mistakes in all innocence, trying our best and falling short or just not knowing enough to make a good call. Sometimes there are no good options anyway. It's important to be able to forgive yourself for these, and to forgive anyone else you encounter who meant well but messed up. Expecting perfection is a form of cruelty.

It's ok to be finished with someone. Not because they were unforgivable and did terrible things, but just because not everything works. Some things run their course. That I can forgive people for being flawed, foolish or wearying is one thing, but it doesn't mean I'm going to go another round with them. I am at my least compassionate when I'm bored with someone else's behaviour, tired of seeing the same mistakes over and over, tired of the dramas that seem small to me. I'm not good when I'm bored. It does not bring out the best in me.

I'm not going to forgive where that requires me to be smaller. I've had enough of cutting myself down to make other people comfortable. I'm not going to seek forgiveness from people who just find me too difficult - better for all of us if we move on. I don't need to be forgiven for being myself. I don't want to deal with people who have been so offended by me being myself that forgiving me seems relevant to them. It's taken me a long time to get to this point.