Theme: Forgiveness

Always Forgive 

One day Anny came home from school very angry and made the biggest noise around the house. Anny's father noticed her irritation and asked her what had happened.

- Look, Dad, I'm very angry with Pete. He humiliated me in front of everyone. I don't want to see him anymore. I hope he gets sick and can't go to school anymore.

To Anny's surprise, her father said nothing.

He just went to the garage and got a bag of coal. He went to the back of the yard and called her:

- Daughter, do you see that shirt on the clothesline? Let's pretend that it’s Pete. And each piece of coal is your thought about him. Unload all your anger by throwing the coal into the shirt until nothing is left. I'll be back soon, to see if you like it, right?

Anny thought that game was delicious and started throwing the coal.

As she was small and a little far away, she could barely get the shirt right.

After an hour, she was exhausted, but the task was done.

The father, who was watching her from afar, came over and asked her:

- Daughter, how are you feeling now?

- That gave me a huge exhaustion, but look, I managed to hit many coals in the shirt.

- Very well, my daughter. Now come with me to the room, because I want to show you something.

Upon reaching the bedroom, he placed his daughter in front of a large mirror.

When Anny looked at her image, she was shocked to see that she was all dirty with coal. So filthy that she could only see her teeth and small eyes.

The father then explained to her:

- Look how you are. The shirt you tried to get dirty is cleaner than you. That's life. The harms we wish for others, return to us. As much as we get angry with someone in our thoughts, the stain, residue and dirt are always in ourselves.

(Extracted from the book “Always forgive”, published by Soler.)

Translation:
Larissa Martine - larissa_am@hotmail.com

marcelapradacontato@gmail.com