Calvin Sandborn, a professor of environmental law, legal director of the University of Victoria Environmental Law Clinic and author of Becoming the Kind Father: A Son’s Journey recently shared a story of forgiveness in a powerful article about his relationship with his father. Here’s an excerpt:

“Dad was an angry, hard-swearing, tattooed man’s man. By the time I was 13, I wished he would die. And then he did. I thought that my wish had killed him, and for the longest time I couldn’t forgive myself. I was scared to death I would damage someone else. But four decades on, I’ve forgiven myself for hating him. More difficult, I’ve somehow forgiven myself for the Dad-like fury I inflicted on my own family.”

Read Calvin Sandborn’s full story of forgiveness posted in our stories section. Does it strike a chord with you? Share your story of forgiveness with us.

“When I was a kid, I used to tell all the other kids you were the smartest man in the world.” –David Heins to his father, John

Listen to David Heins’ touching StoryCorps conversation with his father as he shares his feelings and experience of being both a son and new father. If this story evokes a memory of your father, being a father, or a father figure in your life, we invite you to share it. We also invite you to sample other stories of love and forgiveness on our Web site.

“You taught me that it’s ok to make mistakes. It’s ok to get mad. It’s just not ok to get out of control.” Listen in to this StoryCorps® conversation as Ky-Antre Compton speaks to Stuart Chittenden, his mentor from Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Ky-Antre shares what it’s meant having Stuart in his life and asks him about his beliefs.

Do you have a story about a special mentor you’d like to share?

“One day we were going around, I was about seven years old. Mandred walked up to me and grabbed me by the shoulders and said, ‘you know what, Gerard, you’re my best friend in the whole wide world.’ My best friend in the whole wide world, but boy did we have a lot of arguments…” Listen to a StoryCorps® conversation as Otis Wade remembers his best friend, Mandred Henry, and his legacy of love, in an interview with Mandred’s granddaughter, Beatrice Perron.

Share your story of friendship with us.

Hector Black recounts the murder of his daughter by a burglar in a moving StoryCorps® segment. “I’d never been in favor of the death penalty, but I wanted that man to hurt, the way it hurt her. I wanted him to hurt the way I was hurting.” But Hector Black also wondered who this murderer was and why he would have done this. When he learned more about Ivan Simpson, the man who murdered his daughter, he began to forgive the man, but not the act. Listen to his story and then share your comments and reactions.

Do you think you could forgive someone who hurt or killed someone you love?

“You would poke me and I remember stabbing you with a fork….I just, I just hated you.” Listen to a StoryCorps® conversation between Melissa Wilbur and her sister Janaki Symon as they recount how their extreme dislike of one another in childhood melted away in one special moment.

Do you have a story of how a relationship changed from dislike to love? Share it with us.

Sometimes powerful stories of forgiveness in one community make it possible for others who hear the story to be more loving when tragedy strikes their own family. That’s what happened to Joey.

Joey Heroux watched a television program featuring author Donald Kraybill talking about the book Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended a Tragedy. She read the book and was challenged by the loving example of forgiveness among the Amish.

On January 4, 2008, just a week after viewing the show, Joey learned that her own cousin’s estranged partner shot both her cousin and himself, leaving three young children with parents in critical condition in the same hospital. Joey was on the scene immediately, providing support to the whole family, and especially for the children. The story of Amish forgiveness was never far from her mind.

Six days after the shooting, Joey sent an e-mail to Donald Kraybill, thanking him for writing Amish Grace. She said, “While for just a bit my anger did come through—I thought of how the forgiveness was needed, especially when these innocent children are here wanting so for both of their parents to live. You can see it in their guiltless eyes that they look to us for answers that are hard to voice.”