Forgiveness and Love

I believe that the purest and truest act of love of all is forgiveness. Maybe this is obvious to everyone else, but it took me a very long time to realize. And I think that may be why forgiveness--true, real forgiveness--is so hard for us. Human nature is such that when we get hurt, the easiest response is to get angry. And when I've been hurt, I put up walls. And when walls are up, it's not too much longer until hatred follows and I want to hurt the person that is causing me the pain. I want them to feel a bit of what I am feeling. Even if this person is someone that I supposedly love. My pride and anger at being hurt keep me from being able to forgive. And the more I've been hurt, the longer I think I should wait to forgive. For some reason, it seems like there should be a certain forgiveness waiting period assigned to each offense. The worse the offense, the longer it should take to forgive. But, really, we know if we're eventually going to be able to forgive, so why not do it immediately? Does it really help at all to have that waiting time where anger and hatred lingers? Of course, I'm writing all of this because this is something that I struggle to do. It's not easy to "forgive and forget". And sometimes (most of the time) I don't even really want to. I think I try to hang onto anger and pain because it doesn't seem fair that someone could hurt me and then I would just forgive. But, maybe that's what love is--not being fair. Treating someone better than they deserve to be treated. I think that most people see people who get hurt and don't hurt back as "weak". But I think those who get hurt and are able to forgive are the strongest people in the world. Because forgiving and cultivating love is much harder than being angry and hurting back. And the more we answer with love, the more we're filled with love and the stronger we get.