I can get behind most of what you wrote here, forgiveness and compassion are super important! I wanted to offer an alternate perspective. One of my resolutions recently has been to stop apologizing as much, especially in scenarios where an apology isn't warranted. In these scenarios, the "apology" is more of an invalidation of what I am trying to say, a preface or a way of framing that limits my presence in the situation. (Just spent like 5 minutes trying to find the correct word for this in my brain, and am still stumped.)

Often times I think women shrink in conversations with others, especially men, and don't acknowledge themselves and the validity of what they are trying to say.

For example:

• Instead of saying "Sorry for talking so much", when opening up to someone else, I try to say "Thank you for listening!"

This cartoon is pretty relevant to what I'm trying to say.

Curious to hear your thoughts! Even though I like to resist binary thinking, it feels like it could be a gendered issue (?)