When I was in Australia, I lived in Oaks Maestri Towers at the heart of Sydney where there are many children. The only place they have to play was either at the pool, children’s level or in the nearby park. One day a sunny little voice behind me said, "Hello Miss, how are you today?"
I turned around and saw a little mass of freckles seven or eight years of age. She came wobbling up the side walk of the park on her brother’s bicycle. She was wearing a swimsuit and licking a Popsicle. Her eyes were as blue as Male Beach in Maldives. She swung one leg down to stop her bike and I said, "Oh, hi, Punky… very well thank you… How about you sweetie? I haven’t seen you around for several days."
"I have been on a trip."
"Where did you go?"
"I went to Melbourne to see my mother for two weeks. See, she moved away, and I don’t live with her anymore."
I winced, wondering how a mother could leave such a sunny little girl. I don’t know, of course, how that mother’s life has been disarranged, and perhaps her circumstances are beyond her control. But doesn’t she realize how bitter her daughter is going to be?
Then I had to stop myself as I watched Punky wobbling away, happily licking her Popsicle, for I realized: She’s not bitter. She’s been dealt a blow that she didn’t ask for and didn’t deserve, but she’s not passing on the blow. She’s passing on happiness and sunlight. She stopped to say "hello," and to tell me about her trip. And if she can continue to go through life without holding grudges, passing on a smile in return for a blow, she’ll become a beautiful and charming woman.
We can’t be free and happy if we harbor grudges. Just as bitterness produces more bitterness in others, so thus love begets love. Thank God for those dynamic creative people who, when wronged, refused to compound the amount of hate in the world. Instead of returning the blow, they opt to forgive.
