This year, L>h began a Facilitator’s Team to bring our Forgiveness Class to more state prisons. This story comes from Jack, one of our new Facilitators:
As a boy, Bruce (fake name, real guy in Jack’s class) was abused by his dad. Mental abuse. Verbal abuse. Physical abuse. His mom not only didn’t protect him from it, she abused Bruce too. They raised him with an “eye for an eye” mentality, which he carried into adulthood, and which landed him in prison.
Bruce has done many prison programs trying to turn his life around. He signed up for our Forgiveness Class because his mom is dying, and he wanted to be able to forgive her before she does. Basically, Bruce knows he must make peace with the past so he doesn’t keep carrying it into the future. And he hoped to find whatever love he and his mom have, before it’s too late.
Halfway through the ten week class, Bruce says he understands for the first time what it really means to forgive. He understands now what forgiveness is and what it is not. It’s not denying his feelings and the truth about what his mom did. It’s not excusing it. It’s just knowing she is dying, and it’s time to forgive, so they can both have peace.
Bruce finally told his mom he forgives her, and he loves her. His door is now open for healing, for being a changed man when he gets out, with less anger, and a new mindset to replace “an eye for an eye.”
