My sibling posted this on Facebook. It’s funny this popped up right after I received a response from another sibling, a qualifier, to my 9th Step letter. The response was that what I did was unremembered and so far in the past, not to worry about it. It was loving and forgiving. I cried.
The illustration makes a point. I can apologize all day and all night and not make a damn thing better. Amends is more than apology. It is, as the word indicates, about mending. It’s about healing and making things right. I know not everyone will forgive me, and we won’t all go back to being pals, but if I clean up my side of the street and do all I can to mend the situation, I’ve done what I’m supposed to. I can look other people and myself in the eye. I gain integrity, and that’s important in defeating the family disease.

9th step For The Win! Actually, this is extremely weird and uncomfortable, but I’m sure it’s doing a lot of good.

Unexpected twist – reaching out to people on Facebook to get their postal address, so I can send them letters. They ask me what for. We do, after all, live in a post-postal (heh) society. So when I tell them I want to make amends, we wind up doing it all in Facebook.

Very weird. Very uncomfortable. So far each encounter has ended well, and I know what to do if it doesn’t.

Tomorrow I have phone calls to make.