You are going to hurt people. The only way to avoid hurting people is to become a hermit; to banish yourself from society. But, even this would hurt people. Your absence would hurt the people who love you. Friendships and relationships are like china shops. Despite your very best intentions––despite how gentle and kind and delicate you try to be––if you walk around a china shop long enough, you're inevitably going to break something.

When you do break something––or someone, rather––what's important is that you apologize. An apology is the same as accidentally knocking a tea kettle off a shelf, watching it shatter and then offering to purchase it from the shop owner. You're not under the false impression your offer will make new the tea kettle you've broken. It won't. Apologies can't work magic.

An apology is simply an acknowledgement of someone else's hurt. The reason it's so difficult to apologize is because it hurts to acknowledge that you've hurt someone else. It's far less painful to ignore that you've hurt someone. Furthermore, deep down you're scared of what acknowledging that you've hurt someone might say about you: "Am I the kind of person that hurts people?"

You are––we all are––but you are also the kind of person that apologizes when you hurt people.