An Inspiring Story of Resiliency and Forgiveness

Gate on to infuriation is like grasping a humid pitch with the intent of throwing it at someone other - you are the one who gets burned. "

attributed to Buddha

Want a template for resiliency and forgiveness? Or perhaps you could use a shot of inspiration. If so, I impetus you to peruse the book " Unbroken " by Laura Hillenbrand whose previous book was " Seabiscuit. "

" Unbroken " tells the story of Louis Zamperini who, in the 1930s, was a path star in high school in Torrance, California because husky for in college at the University of Southern California. Some cognition he would be the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes. Zamperini ran the 5, 000 meters ( a little over three miles ) in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

In 1942, Zamperini volunteered for the Army Air Force. He was a bombadier and survived a horrific air battle over the Japanese held island of Nauru.

Several weeks later, he and an 11 - member crew crashed in the Pacific while searching for the crew of a downed flight. Three men survived the crash.

The men floated on a raft in the Pacific for 47 days. They subsisted on scarce rainwater, the occasional bird that landed on their raft and the livers from two sharks that they killed using only a pliers ( take that " Jaws " ).

One of the men, Francis McNamara, died after 37 days. Louis and the other survivor, Russell Phillips who had been the pilot on the doomed flight, floated 2, 000 miles to the Japanese controlled Marshall Islands where they were captured and imprisoned.

Survival at sea is only the first part of this harrowing story. For the next two years, Louis and the other prisoners of war were beaten, tortured and starved. Because no one had heard from him in all this time, Louis was declared dead by the war department.

His ordeal as a prisoner of war ended when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese surrendered.

Louis returned home, married and had two children. But his rage at his Japanese captors and, especially, a camp commander named Watanabe, produced horrific nightmares and alcoholism.

At the urging of his wife, Louis attended a revival meeting in Los Angeles led by the young Billy Graham. Remembering a pledge he had made while on the raft at sea to give his life to God if he survived, Louis literally ended his drinking that night and dedicated his life to helping others. His nightmares and his rage never returned.

Perhaps the most amazing scene of all is of Louis returning to the prisoner of war camp in Japan where he had been imprisoned and that now imprisoned the very guards that had tormented him. To their astonishment Louis forgave the guards and even tried to meet with Watanabe to forgive him although Watanabe refused the meeting.

Louis is still alive and is 95 years old.

I encourage you to make a list of the people in your life who have " wronged " you, the people in your life you just " can ' t " forgive and the people in your life who you complain about. Let go of your " hot coals " and forgive these people. You may not condone what they did, but I urge you to forgive them. Not for their sake, but for yours.

Story Idea Thanksgiving, Gratitude and Forgiveness

Thinking about story ideas and that Thanksgiving is righteous around the corner, perhaps it is a good time to think over writing a story about that.

You could write a story about a Thanksgiving tradition that you had growing up. Or write about one you started. You could write a story about your family cast of characters, tell what they uttered, tell about how they looked, what they wore. Equitable now I am working on a story about my Mom and siblings, Rick, Chorus and Jim and my Mom thanks to an aging originator and what that means to us all this Thanksgiving.

For a Thanksgiving story, you could fashion a short story about a favorite meal or dish that you always had. We ' ve had topics same to this in the bygone but whenever I expect of this topic, there can be something new that comes to soundness that I ' ve not written about before.

You could besides write about a Thanksgiving that was noteworthy in some way, possibly it was your first time in a new situation. Or write about your first sucker, or the while you went vegetarian.

Enhanced idea is to write a story about gratitude. You wake up in the morning, it is frosty outside, you put on your slippers, you make some coffee, you may live with loved ones, or you may be single like I am and know a well - loved routine, for example practically being able to brush my teeth blindfolded. But what if I stop for one second and think about being grateful for this, grateful to be in a warm home, especially grateful for the friendship that I feel even if I can ' t see all these people right in this moment, how I know that they are there. How great is that, to know there are people out there who I care about, who care about me, how about wrapping myself up in that warm robe for a second or two and feeling the smiles on their faces even when I can ' t see them.

Or write a story about forgiveness. Ah, this might be a tougher one. How to forgive when feelings still rankle, " he didn ' t have to say that, " " she didn ' t have to do that. "

But what if, instead I say, " I didn ' t have to feel that way. " I had a friend who would say, " rise above it. " Well, sometimes it was hard to understand what that meant. But as I grow older, and feel somewhat less reactive, in other words, my anger is not triggered as easily as it used to be, it is easier to understand, " rise above it. " That ' s what that means to me, don ' t let it get to you. And in that understanding is forgiveness for me. But I ' m forgiving myself for being angry in the first place and allowing the person to get to me, and then at the same time, there is an insight that is compassion. I may not understand why that person said something that felt hurtful to me, but I can better see my way to forgiving.

And that does not mean being a DOORMAT.

I had an experience where I received a promotion and was happy about it and shared it with a friend who said something to the effect of, " oh well, anyone can do that. " I felt angry. I retorted with a complete smile on my face, " oh, that was such an affirming thing for you to say. Thank you for that, it such a nice vote of confidence coming from you. "

He immediately retreated and explained himself more fully and it had everything to do with him and nothing to do with my promotion. I was grateful that I could be in that moment with a verbal comeback. But then later, I could forgive because I could see that it came from a place in him of some struggle that had nothing to do with what I said and everything to do with what was going on for him.

There are, of course, larger incidents in my life that cause me to reflect on forgiveness and it can be very difficult. The more pain that has been caused, the more difficult it is. And it can take years to come to terms with forgiveness, or a lifetime or longer than that. But if an inkling of it can be felt deep inside, it seems to me that is a good thing. But it can be awfully hard with some people when I think of them.

Here ' s to that getting easier, or to learning to take a longer view at the bigger picture.

This is the season when we turn inside as the weather brings us closer to each other and we can have a chance to reflect and see the forest of our lives for the trees, so to speak. Our days are crowded and maybe now we have a chance for some breathing room to think about the Big Idea picture.

Please leave a comment, it would be great to hear what you have to say about gratitude or forgiveness.