Monday, July 5, 2021
I am very saddened to hear of John’s passing. He was my therapist for many years. I really respected him. He helped me to learn so many things about myself and helped me thru some difficult times in my life. Among the many things I learned from him was about the power of forgiveness.I know people don’t necessarily agree about what it means, but I came to believe that forgiveness is not for the other person who has harmed me but to heal myself so I don’t continue to feel that hate,anger and bitterness towards that person. Instead of allowing it to eat away at me, after I would go thru that process, and that didn’t happen overnight, I was amazed by the weight that was lifted off me. That didn’t mean however that I needed to tell the person that I had forgiven them, that I wanted to be around them and I didn’t have to forget what they had done. Another thing that I learned from John was when I would say that I would try to do something, he would immediately come back with the response “DON’T TRY, JUST DO IT”. I didn’t usually want to hear that but I still practice that. He always made me feel safe in our sessions and was very empathetic. You were a good man John Walter. My condolences to his family.
