Let Go and Be Happy

Anyone in the world can learn to forgive those who have injured them, however, great or small that injury may be. I see the truth of this every day. For example, I recently shared my story with a new friend, and a few days later she called to say that my experiences had inspired her to contact an uncle she’d once been close to but hadn’t spoken to in years.

“We’d had a big fight, and I was so angry that I swore I’d never speak to him again,” she confided. “But after hearing how you managed to forgive the people who killed your family, I had to pick up the phone and call him. I didn’t ask him for an apology – I just opened my heart and forgave him. Soon we were talking the way we used to, with so much love. We couldn’t believe that we’d wasted so many years.”

Similarly, a genocide survivor whose family had been murdered called me from Rwanda not long ago, crying over the phone and asking me to explain the steps I’d taking to forgive the killers.

“I thought you were crazy to forgive them, Immaculee – that you were letting them off the hook. But the pain and bitterness I’ve been carrying in my heart for 11 years is about to kill me. I’ve been so miserable for so long that I don’t have the energy to live anymore. But I keeping hearing people talk about how you forgave your family’s killers and moved on with your life…that you’re happy and have a husband, children, and a career! I need to learn how to let go of my hatred, too. I need to live again.”

I told her how I put my trust in God, and related all I’d done to forgive and move ahead…everything I’ve now written down in this book. She thanked me and later told me that she’d asked God to help her forgive the killers, too.

Then there was the woman in Atlanta who approached me in tears at the end of a talk I gave. She told me that her parents had been killed in the Nazi Holocaust when she was a baby: “My heart had been full of anger my entire life…I’ve suffered and cried over my parents for so many years. But hearing your story about what you lived through and were able to forgive has inspired me. I’ve been trying all my life to forgive the people who killed my parents, and now I think I can do it. I can let go of my anger and be happy.”

The love of a single heart can make a world of difference. I believe that we can heal our world by healing one heart at a time.