Marie Balter, a woman who was misdiagnosed and kept in a state mental hospital for 20 years. Later she learned she had suffered from a form of depression and panic disorder, not schizophrenia. She has returned to the hospital as a full-time administrator after she earned a master's degree at Harvard.
''I wouldn't have grown one bit if I didn't learn to forgive,'' she said in a recent interview. ''If you don't forgive your parents or your children or yourself you don't get beyond that anger."
''Forgiving is a way of reaching out from a bad past and heading out to a more positive future.''
"Now, as I look back on my life, I can honestly say I wouldn't change it. The pain and suffering have brought me psychological understanding and spiritual strength. I still feel the pain when I reflect on those experiences, but while once they would throw me deeper and deeper into anxious despair, now they feed my desire to keep growing."
Marie Balter, a courageous soul.
~
Antennae for droplets of received wisdom
