Forgive me... I forgive you...

The Hawaiian language has no words for, 'I am sorry'. What does happen is, you say "Please forgive me". And the other person says, "I forgive you".
To say, "I am sorry" is an indication of a state of being. It does not do anything beyond that. Whereas, to ask for forgiveness sets a process in motion which should ultimately lead to healing.

I don't know about you, but I do believe that our ancestors had a deeper reason for the painfully obvious absence of the phrase, ' I am sorry' from these languages.

I also find it interesting that races and nations and oceans apart, we have found commonality in a certain spiritual profundity to our languages. Makes me wonder about the common thread that is woven through the fibre of all humanity.


It got me thinking about the local languages in Ghana that I am familiar with and interestingly enough, there were no specific words for 'I am sorry...' All of them pretty much approach this the same way as the Hawaiian language. The conversation usually goes like this: I know I have wronged you, please forgive me.

The thing about this 'ritual' is that it forces each person out of their 'comfort zone'. It is difficult to come face to face with someone you have wronged, look them in the eye and not simply share with them how you are feeling about the incident, but going a step further to ask them for their forgiveness. Once you get past this point you put the monkey on the other person's shoulder. Now, the one who has been wronged has to take the equally painful position of saying to the other that they forgive them. In some cases, this process is used as a form of power play, totally defeating the entire purpose of the exercise.

When egos are set aside for this sacred process of forgiveness to begin, when the intention is pure, then true healing happens.