Protecting your peace may at times come at the cost of relinquishing those in your life who cause you nothing but turmoil, despite whatever past you share with them. But doing so is essential to living a happy life. When people hurt you, the best path to healing, is forgiveness. However, this path is far from an easy one. It takes time, a lot of which may be spent in solitude. But it's essential to completing the shadow work necessary to figuring out what to do going forward. And while you may spend all that time and effort to enact some amount of forgiveness for those who've done you wrong, it sure doesn't mean you need to associate yourself with them any longer. That's one thing I realized years ago, after my first bad breakup with a partner I'd been with for years. I had forgiven them for what they had done to me, the repeated abuse, trauma, forced isolation from friends and family, etc. However, I quickly found that being around them any longer after the fact was nothing short of draining. My girlfriend(who is the person featured in this piece) has dealt with a multitude of similar situations, with friends, romantic partners, and family. We've discussed this many times and no matter what, each and every time we discuss it, the conclusion we usually end up coming to, is that it is possible to forgive, but in most cases, not forget. It's a fine line one must walk to reach an ideal state of peace, but once done successfully, it allows you to live a much happier life in my opinion. Just because you spent all this time trying to heal and forgive someone, doesn't mean you need to still be around them after the fact. "Forgiven, Not Forgotten" is a photography composite piece + digital painting done in photoshop.