I have served a full life sentence as a prisoner of my past, nAs a victim of a victim of a victim. nSeems my parents' parents' parents left traps that held me fast, nand they still catch me even when I think I've licked 'em. nnWell, I have blamed them, nI have fought them, nbut I never understood. nAll they really did was did the best they could. nnIs there a way to rise above, nIf I look at them with love, nThough I look at them full honest in the face? nCan I make my peace at last nWith the pieces of my past nAnd enfold them in forgiveness's embrace? nAnd enfold them in forgiveness's embrace. nnI forgive my poor flawed parents for the things they could not be. nI forgive my valiant lovers for not completing me. nAnd the hardest thing of all now, nI forgive myself the sin of not being all I planned nAnd all I thought I should have been. nnBut there's an alchemy in time, ntransforms each grief and loss and scar nInto the precious stuff of who we are. nnAnd there's a way to rise above, nIf I look at them with love. nThough I don't deny that harm has taken place. nI can make my peace at last, nWith the pieces of my past nAnd enfold them in forgiveness's embrace nnSome call it wisdom, and some just call it grace. nWhen we make our peace at last nWith the pieces of the past nAnd enfold them in forgiveness's embrace, nAnd enfold them. nI will enfold them. nNow I enfold them in forgiveness's embrace.n