Forgiving or letting go?

What is forgiveness? According to the free dictionary it is;

 – To give up resentment against or stop wanting to punish (someone) for an offense or    fault; pardon.

 – To relent in being angry or in wishing to exact punishment for (an offense or fault).

So is it easy to forgive and can you forgive people who hurt you? Or can you let it go but not forgive? The first definition states that forgiveness is about giving up resentment or stopping wanting to punish someone for something that have done. Some things are easier to forgive than others and there are some things that would be very hard to forgive. But let’s just think about forgiving others such as friends or relatives who have hurt us. If we don’t forgive then we can build up resentment so much that it makes us ill. Is this a good thing? Some times it may be easy to let hurts go but not quite forgive in the sense that we lose .trust in that person who hurt us and keep a distance between us so that they can’t hurt us again. Is this a good thing to do?

This brings me to the second part of the definition – stopping wanting to punish some one for an offence or fault. Tit for tat does not work. Gandhi stated that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. So wanting punishment for someone who said nasty things about you is not really a good idea. I’m rather tired today and in a lot of pain, physical pain not pain caused by hurts. But I would love to read your comments and thoughts on forgiving others.