If you haven't already been 'introduced' to Gill Hicks, allow me to do so. I don't actually know Gill at all, although I know a little about her.
Gill is a survivor of the London July 7th 2005 bombings. Many courageous stories from that day but, for me, none as amazing and inspiring as Gill's story. Gill has a strength and generosity of spirit that I can only dream of.
Coincidentally, I had just finished reading her book 'One Unknown', when I noticed an interview with Gill on television. Two years post 7/7, Gill was talking about forgiveness and her involvement with The Forgiveness Project. A charitable organisation, The Forgiveness Project describes itself on its website as exploring forgiveness, reconciliation and conflict resolution through real-life human experience.
Forgiveness. It is said that forgiving an act frees us from continuing to live with any associated hurt and pain. I understand the logic in that and I do try and and live my life that way. Having said that, I've been pretty fortunate with my experiences in my life. I think Simon Wiesenthal said it best when he said, 'Forgetting is something that time takes care of, but forgiveness is an act of volition, and only the sufferer is qualified to make the decision.'
Ghandi said 'Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.' Read more stories of incredible strength here.
3 comments:
Wow, what a strong woman.
Forgiveness can be a really tough thing to do, but I understand what you said about how forgiveness frees us from hurt and pain. That's so true, but can be so hard to do. It's definitely worth it, though, if it can be done. Having been in a situation where I needed to forgive two people for what they did to me and a bunch of other people at work, I found that I was able to heal physically and mentally once I started working on forgiveness.
Excellent post! So true!
Coming from the Christian perspective Jesus said we should forgive 70 x 7, meaning indefinitely. To forgive is healing.
The person holding the grudge is the one gnashing their teeth while the other person goes on about their merry way. Who gets hurt in this scenario? What happens to our bodies when we allow ourselves to fill up with bitterness?
But when we forgive - it releases all that negativity, freeing up our mind body and spirit to focus on more positive, productive, and nurturing things and sends that ripple of good forward.
been there myself! :)
HP - Try again - I put the joke back up. If it disappears again then well...I guess the joke is on me and I will do something else.
Hi Donna,
Agree totally...very tough..that's why I expressly left out the first part of Ghandi's words on foregiveness...that the weak can never forgive...No doubt that forgiveness requires an inner strength but I don't think an inability to forgive translates to weakness.
Hi Seaspray,
In the interview, they talked about forgiveness as 'letting go of the poison.' A reasonable analogy.
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