The Greatest of Gifts

The Power to stop the violence belongs to me

I really don’t like the word victim, certainly not to describe me, or my own personal perspective. I much prefer the word survivor. I survived, therefore I am a survivor. To me the ‘victims’ are the people who sadly did not survive that day.
For me to agree to the label ‘victim’ is to complete the task the person who harmed me set out to achieve that morning; for that is what he wanted – to make me his victim, and I refuse to comply. Label me as a victim, treat me as a victim and it is he you are helping, not me.
As a survivor I have always felt great responsibility to try and break the cycle of violence, and to try and prevent any person having to suffer what I and so many others have suffered.
Recently it dawned on me what a gift I was given by the person who sought to hurt me.
In the detonation of that bomb, the power was transferred from him, to me.
In the detonation of a bomb, the power is no longer in the hands of the aggressor; in that shockwave and that shrapnel, the power was given to us, the survivors.
The power to break the cycle of violence now belongs to me.
When we as survivors or bereaved families, refuse to reciprocate the hate, the violence or the revenge, we hold the power; and we are able to break the cycle of violence.
A ‘terrorist’ may have tried to hurt me, but in doing so, he relinquished his power and gave me the greatest gift anyone could; the power, responsibility and opportunity to break the cycle of violence. I may have been physically harmed – but in that same moment I was empowered by those wounds.
When anyone hates, or seeks revenge for the events of that day, or days like them,it is not by the side of the survivor or ‘victim’ they stand; rather they become the accomplice of the ‘terrorist’ for that hate and revenge is what he sought to create.
I will not engage in that cycle of violence.
In me the cycle of violence has been broken, and peace has been empowered.
What a privilege and a gift.
Thank you for the gift of peace.
I hope I am able to share my gift with the world.
Please share this link, and help me share my gift.
Peace.