Practices

Acts of Repair

Repair is a change in the world. Forgiveness is not its receipt.

AI-drafted Reasoned position

Proposed form Not a report of established or tested use.

Two adults working together to repair a wooden bench in a courtyard.
An imagined repair, not a record of a community project. AI-generated image
  • Time needed One manageable act, followed by review where needed
  • Alone Can be practiced on your own
  • Together Can be practiced with others

The sequence

  1. Name the actual harm

    Identify what happened and what remains wrong. Do not shrink it to the part easiest for you to remedy.

  2. Find the boundary of consent

    Ask about a proposed repair only where contact is welcome and safe. A refusal of contact is not an obstacle you are entitled to overcome.

  3. Do what is within your power and permission

    Correct a false record, return what is owed, repair an authorized object, or change the process. An apology may matter; it does not replace the change.

  4. Stop the recurrence

    Ask what in the arrangement produced the harm and who has the authority to alter it. Do not leave an individual carrying an institutional duty alone.

  5. Release the demand for absolution

    The person harmed need not thank, forgive or resume a relationship. Where a record is needed, keep it accurately and with appropriate privacy.

Some things cannot be restored. A new good does not cancel an old injury, though doing it can still matter. Ending a harmful mechanism may be the available repair when renewed contact is not.

Neither the damaged object nor the harmed person is worth more for having been damaged. The point is what we owe now, not a story that makes the break necessary.