rticle FAeature Our Actions Can Follow Us Through Decades Of Life Continued... She shook her head. “I don’t know if that makes me feel better.” I rose from my seat and asked her if I could give her a hug. She smiled and accepted it with gratitude. I embraced her warmly and said, “I forgive you. Unconditionally. Now I want you to spend the rest of your life without ever feeling even one more second of guilt about our little incident. I grant you freedom from guilt over me.” She embraced me once again, and we closed a 40-year circle of guilt and forgiveness. The amazing thing is how all the circumstances lined up that day to bring us together. I look at it as just one of my life’s many blessings.
told me I’d better get ready to duck. She stared at me a few moments before explaining. I fidgeted and looked at Mr. Jensen. He adjusted his bed to get a better view. “When you were in the first grade, your teacher went out on maternity leave,” she said. “I took her place for the last part of the year. You were in that class.” I looked into her eyes. She still did not look familiar, but forty years is a long time to remember a face. “Back in those days we could paddle children,” she continued. “I was having a rough day, and you managed to get on my very last nerve. I took you into the back of the room and let you have it. But I felt really bad afterward. I never spanked another child ever again, and
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for all these years I’ve been hoping to find you to ask for your forgiveness.”
You can hear my interview with Ricki Weyhe in the archives from Kandee G’s Nothing But Good News Radio from July 30 2012. It’s living proof of the “Butterfly Effect,” how our actions, however inconsequential they seem, can affect others for a lifetime.
I tried to think back on the incident, but I drew a blank. I just could not remember her or the spanking she said she gave me. “I’ve been so worried that I traumatized you for life, and that maybe your life turned out badly because of me.” Mr. Jensen laughed. “He became a teacher. Is that good or bad? It’s a matter of opinion. “Ma’am,” I smiled, “I don’t remember you ever hitting me. In fact, I don’t remember you at all. If you called my mother about the incident, I guarantee that what she gave me when I got home would have been twenty times worse than your paddle could ever be.”
Spring 2014 - Kandee G Enterprises
Hank Eder is PR pro, freelance writer, screenwriter, speaker, and “man of many hats.” He is currently working on a book and series of personal growth workshops about being your own inner hero. Catch up with Hank at hank@ hankeder.com, and please visit http://hankeder.com