The Beauty of Forgiveness

On Friday, I had the wonderful opportunity to be invited to see the film "Kinyarwanda" in Atlanta at the AMC theatres at Phipps Plaza.  The film illustrates the horrifying tales of the lives of Rwandans that lived and died during 100 days of extreme hatred, violence and murder now known as the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.

Earlier in the week I was with filmmaker, Detra Harris just to share, discuss and celebrate with each other amongst a delicious homemade pastry dish and African tea at my client, Linda Cox's home.  Side note: the beauty of simple connections is so miraculous and social media can never replace that. I digress...

The story of the people of Rwanda isn't new to me.  I was fortunate to meet Linda Cox, author and humanitarian who's also co-founder of the nonprofit organization, One Hundred Days, whose mission is to help rebuild Rwanda with their first project being the first pediatric hospital for the millions of children that live in Rwanda. The population under age 15 represents 42% of the population, and child mortality rates are worst in all of Africa – one in ten children die before their fifth birthday.

But even with all of that and all of what Rwanda and her citizens have been through, they have managed to find the beauty of forgiveness to transform them, heal them and establish the hope that this country will rise above and be a shining example to all of us of what the word 'forgiveness' APPLIED actually looks like.

I recently had an opportunity to embrace "forgiveness" in its true meaning and never have I felt freer than how I feel now.  It was a 'score' I was finally able to settle with my father, and thank God it didn't have to come by way of tragedy or running out of time.  It emerged through spiritual pain and mental anguish but that was the wake up call I needed. 

If you've never understood the impact of "hating" and all it stands for, I encourage you to venture into a theatre to experience it first hand through the movie KINYARWANDA. It gives you a real account of how hatred manifests itself in the most sordid way AND THEN it also gives you the illustration of the healing balm called FORGIVENESS and how you can use it to free yourself and your loved ones to rise again with the hope to make the world you live in better because you are in it.