100 Happy Days

Day #11: Stories with good endings make me happy, especially when they are real life stories. Recently I read a book about a girl who'd been abused as a child and then later kidnapped, leading to worse. She eventually got away from the evil kidnapper and the kidnapper went to prison. This girl said something very profound at the end of the book in relation to the fact that she should really hate the kidnapper but doesn't. This is what she said 'I deserve to be free. And I can't have freedom if I'm walking around everyday with resentment and bitterness. Forgiveness is the only way I can truely reclaim my life. If I don't forgive the kidnapper, then it'll be like he imprisoned me twice: first while being held hostage and now even after he's gone. I'm letting my hatred of him go so I can truely get my new life back.' I thought that was profound because I had to deal with several pretty mean and selfish people like a year ago. One dragged it into the summer and wouldn't stop, so it was hard to not be like 'I hate this person.' Not long ago I had read a book about a mom of one of the kids in the Sandy Hook shooting. Pretty profound once again. This mom talked about hating the shooter, but after time decided the only way to deal with it was to let it go. That was the key and helped a lot. I decided at that time that I never will agree to associate with those horrible people again that I had to deal with last year. But I didn't want to dwell on them or remember how horrible they were, so I decided to do as the Sandy Hook mom suggested and have attempted to let it go with those horrible people. Interesting fact is that almost about a month of doing so they come to mind a lot less often and I don't think about how horrible they were. The best key to happiness is letting it go with bad people you've met and forgiving.