Forgiveness has been on my mind this week, and it is not simply because Yom Kippur begins tomorrow. I have missed the mark and made mistakes recently for which I would like to be forgiven. Thankfully, they have not been terribly egregious mistakes, but they have been poor decisions and misbehaviors all the same. So I apologized. I said, “I’m sorry.”

Before I did so, I really did think through what I did wrong and analyzed if it really was all that wrong. Of course, I had my reasons and I actually did think some of them were quite legitimate at the time. But in the end, feelings were hurt, and therefore I needed to apologize. It not only felt good, but was also quite easy.

In fact, I found it easy to say “I’m sorry.” It takes a lot of time and energy to rationalize one’s behavior and find meaning from what we did wrong. Whereas, it takes only two words to own up to our mistakes and begin the process of moving forward. Perhaps I am just too tired and stretched in everything that I do that I found saying “I’m sorry” to be simpler. Or it may be the humility I have gained in my maturation to understand that I too make mistakes and feel comfortable with the responsibility of owning them.

I highly recommend just saying “I’m sorry.”