Resentment Gone

A former client whose brother was savagely murdered in the 1980s talked to me about his feelings when he witnessed the killer’s execution earlier this week.

He said that for years he was consumed with hatred toward the man, but eventually the anger subsided.  And when he saw him being executed all he could feel for him was pity.

            “No one should die alone like he did,” he said. “It was sad.”

When the media interviewed him and other family members afterward his siblings were upset with him for what he said.

One thing we learn in recovery is that resentments and anger don’t serve us at all. This man made a decision to not let the poison of resentment destroy his life. While he feels on a deep level the inexplicable loss of his younger brother he knows he’ll never be at peace if he lets hatred and anger consume him.

He’d rather spend his time enjoying his wife and children than draining his emotions by expending energy on a killer who had a total disregard for human life.