January | 2012 | Life After Hate

Archive for January, 2012

In Captivity …The Sky is Always There: Stories of Healing

By Katharina Hren ⋅ January 25, 2012 ⋅ 3 comments

It matters not when the healing begins. What matters is that there is a conscious intention to be an active participant in our healing by changing the stories that we tell about our experiences. I had to work to forgive my captor, the disease of alcoholism, in order to be free of an old drama of resentment and hurt. Compassion was the missing key that helped me to understand the lock that seemed to trap me in my painful experiences.

The Art of Forgiveness: Part 1

By Charles Ryder ⋅ January 22, 2012 ⋅ 17 comments

Volunteering at a holiday home for people with severe disabilities, I met a retired police officer who had been attacked on duty which had left her paralysed. She told me that “she had joined the police to help people” and I asked her if she hated the person who had injured her. She replied, “No, because there is too much hate in the world”.

Basic Human Goodness: Finding the Good Within Yourself

By DaRaven ⋅ January 15, 2012 ⋅ One comment

I have been a part of this remarkable organization for almost a year now, and I have witnessed firsthand the power and immense depth of the human need for compassion and ability to give it as my fellow artists, writers, and thinkers incorporate this declaration in their daily lives. I say this because just a year ago I suffered from a terrible notion myself, which I have come to realize plagues us all in one way or another; the very issue of finding the basic human goodness within one’s self, which is something that I was struggling with for a very long time. We work hard to combat hate and ignorance in the lives of others, but what of the hate and the ignorance within us?

“I didn’t want to pass your house.”

By Jeff Winkowski ⋅ January 11, 2012 ⋅ 2 comments

When I was a kid my summer job was to sell Kool-Aid to people at my mom’s rummage sales which she and her girlfriends had several times each summer. I remember overhearing one of mom’s customers complaining, saying something about being able to “Jew down” at our neighbor’s yard sale. I wasn’t sure why but I knew at age six that this kind of talk was very wrong and it was very offensive. Yet I would have thought nothing about hearing someone say that they got “gypped” at a rummage sale, car dealership, or a candy store. In fact it was not for another twelve years before I learned that Gypsies were a race of people with over 1,000,000 people in the US, and 10,000,000 in Europe, making them Europe’s largest ethnic minority.

Today I Consider

By Callen Harty ⋅ January 1, 2012 ⋅ 3 comments

Today I consider love. I believe that one cannot truly love others without loving oneself. It took time and a great deal of self-examination, but I grew to love myself, faults and all, after I stopped using. I still have moments when I slip and don’t love myself as fully as I should, but for the most part I have come to appreciate myself for who I am and the gifts I have to offer this world. I understand I am not a perfect man. I understand that I have so much growth yet to come. But I believe that my essence, the core of my being, is worthy of love, and I believe the same is true of humankind in general, that we are all worthy and that everyone at their core is an innocent child worthy of love, compassion, and respect. It is this belief that gives meaning to my life and my movement through this world.

Sammy Rangel “FOURBEARS: Myths of Forgiveness”

FourBears: The Myth of Forgiveness: isn't a simple memoir; it is a graphically illustrated guide from tortured child, to remorseless beast, to healing and change. This book is about helping others find their way out of their history and into the here and now. Proof that what once held you down can now hold you up. After the book reflects on a horrific upbringing it looks to offer key and ground breaking insights of the inner workings of the mind of a victim and later a perpetrator of hate and violence. Service providers working in treatment centers and institutional settings would greatly benefit from this work. Anyone facing issues with forgiveness and change might find a process toward healing and recovery.