“Forgiveness”

I was sitting here half listening to the news on CNN a while ago and some where in this country an eight year old boy shot and killed his father. Poor Dad, I thought, “What’s up with that“? But then I thought of his so, so very young son who later on in his miserable life will think about what he did to his Dad……
          Which brings me to a story I read a few years ago. I can’t stop thinking about this. In the newspaper it was described like this. A seventeen year old girl had her legs amputated today at Baystate Medical in Springfield Massachusetts after being struck by a car while putting her luggage in the back of a van at the railroad station. Robert Carrasquillo Jr. 20 of Springfield faces a number of charges including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, operating under the influence of alcohol, causing serious injury while operating negligently and leaving the scene of an accident.
            Clara Gardner of Northampton Massachusetts was a high school senior at the time was returning with her father and 2 friends from a trip to Mexico. She was putting luggage in the back of a van when she seen out of the corner of her eye over her shoulder the lights of a car coming behind her at a high rate of speed. She didn’t have a chance to move. The car ran into the back of the van hitting her at the same time... This happened a few years ago and today she is doing as well as can be expected. I don’t know who this young girl is but my sadness for her is overwhelming. According to the news story she continued her life as a high school student and will to go to college to study art. In the future when I have the poor me’s I will think of Clara and what a brave young woman she is and how she is an inspiration to me. I can’t say enough about her and the sadness I feel. For this kid to have something done like this done to her is so heart breaking its painful.
       I went out with friends a while ago and at one point we talked about forgiveness and how we at times need to say we are sorry for past miss deeds so we don’t have these negative things rattling around in our minds. One of the guys, a construction worker spoke of a fellow worker standing next to him on the 4th floor of a building under construction. They were talking and laughing and in the next moment his friend tripped and fell to his death down an empty elevator shaft in the new building. My friend feels anger and guilt because if he walked the other way maybe the man would have followed or if he asked this poor guy to help him on something else he wouldn’t have fallen. The guilt and how we blame ourselves is the first thing that happens. He is working with a Psychiatrist and it seems to be helping. Good for him.
         These three stories are examples of different but forgivable sad events that very few of us will ever experience. However, the strength to forgive someone or ask someone to forgive us is at times the challenge of a lifetime. When we push our sensitivity and egos aside and become humble enough to do this, it is a feeling of complete calmness. Not only do we empty our minds of thinking negative thoughts we will stop thinking that the things that happen in our lives is all our fault. All humans are fallible and we all make mistakes, its human nature and one of the hardest things to do is let go forgive ourselves first.