Last March, I was privy to a electrically charged situation. It wasn't about me, but I was very close to the fallout of the experience. A friend who was very involved in it suggested a book called Peacemaker by Ken Sande and Kevin Johnson. I read the book and was encouraged by the biblical suggestions. Overall I totally agreed with the author that unless you have peace with God, you can't have true peace.
As I connected that with the Gesture of Peace that we give at the liturgy, it is not our peace that we share with others, but God's Peace.....sometimes I even say "Peace of Christ" rather than "peace be with you". Since reading that book, I have been following the blog by the authors and others in the organization. I liked best the quote from the book "peace is overlooking others short comings". He said in each situation we choose to be a peacemaker, a peacebreaker or a peacefaker. I'm learning to not force peace...but let it come when people are ready for it.
Recently a child of mine had an altercation with a friend. I wanted them to work it out right away. They weren't ready. It's tricky to know how quickly to encouarge them to "make-up" and how much to allow the natural response of forgiveness in time. It's amazing to me how often my children are able to move on past a situation. I'd like to be able to do more "forgetting" like they do.