Forgiveness: Letting go of pain

[ More Articles ] | Refer to this article by Donna Williams for background information.

I believe that the autistic community needs "Aspies For Forgiveness" - a campaign of love and peace to create opportunities for autistics to forgive those who have mistreated them, and to ask for forgiveness from those who they have inadvertently offended. Many autistics are upset about people telling them how they should behave, think and feel. They are upset that everyone eagerly intrudes on them and their world. They are upset that they have been rejected, bullied and trodden upon by non-autistics. Years of pain and endurance has manifested in many angry words like "don't you pity us" and "don't you dare make us normal". These angry people then formed angry organizations to spread their message. Yet anger only makes more anger, bringing people further from each other. No one has made peace with anger. No one has brought acceptance with quarrels disguised as debates.

I have no right to tell autistics not to be angry, because I was one myself. I just hope that when some autistics have enough of being angry, they will find this article and read it. And perhaps they will forgive the non-autistics after they experience the other side of the story.

We as autistics may not know that the way we behave makes great demands for non-autistics to accommodate to us, just as the way non-autistics behave makes great demands on us. When we realize these, it may well be our turn to seek the forgiveness of non-autistics.

One of the greatest revelations after recovering my instincts is that I now perceive other autistics from the "other side". This made it obvious to me why I was rejected socially and why I was treated so badly in the past. If I have not had the experience of autism, I would probably have done the same to someone like myself. With this in mind, I can no longer condemn their behavior and had no choice but to forgive them.

Sometimes people forget that we are all human. We forgot who we really are, and what other people are really about. We forgot about why we are here on this "Earth-walk". Even now, I have to keep reminding myself that everything that we see, hear, touch, taste, smell or sense is a gift to us. It is only when we think it is something else that it shows up that way.

Therefore, judge not, and neither condemn: For those we judge, judges us; those we condemn will condemn us. Those we see for who they really are will see us for who we really are: a gift to them. Within this gift lies our peace and forgiveness.May this prayer help guide those who seek Inner Peace.

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