‘No one is your enemy, no one is your friend; everyone is your teacher.’
This is an old saying that I think holds a lot of truth whether you agree or disagree with it. If we just look at our own lives, we can all find a memory of someone we considered a “friend” who betrayed us and we moved them to the “enemy” category. And likewise, we can all think of someone we may have disliked intensely who came through for us and ended up becoming a “friend.” In either case, we learned something from the experience.
Here’s a strange paradox: our greatest lessons in life usually come from the people who hurt us the most, that is, if we let them. Most of us prefer to remain angry, unforgiving, and never get to benefit from the lesson. But from my personal experience, if you turn your “enemy” into your “friend,” and you don’t put your “friends” on pedestals, but instead you see every one who comes into your life as a gift, then you are free. Forgiveness is the key to this type of freedom. We’ve just got to let it go! I’m not saying this is easy, but it’s really worth the effort.