Forgiveness is the heart of the process to harvest life gracefully. Forgiveness is love. Forgiveness is acceptance. The opposite of forgiveness is hate and hate produces envy, spite and rage. These feelings of envy, spite and rage are unpleasant feelings. To harvest life gracefully we want to promote good feelings within ourselves.

From our human tendency we had hurt others and ourselves, and others has hurt us. If we can look at our hurts and think of it as mistakes, I believe it is easier to forgive. Oftentimes we have expectations of ourselves and of others and when those expectations fails we feel hurt. At those times we need to check ourselves out and evaluate if our expectations were set too high. Often times I find that I expect too much from myself and from others.

The first thing I learned about forgiveness is to realize that I am a good person and most people are good also. I then, recognized if I totally and completely knew my behavior would hurt myself or another I would not be doing it. This opens the door to freedom to forgive. We all know conscientiously certain behaviors automatic can hurt ourselves or others but there are other elements involved when we conscientiously behave in a hurtful way. For instance, our sub-conscience can play a part, that causes us not to be totally aware of why we were force into behaving in the way we did. It could be past issues or flashbacks from a traumatic experience that caused intense, strong uncontrollable emotions, that has not been address or dealt with yet. When this happens then it is necessary to go back to step one and examine your life because now you know it is your time to cope with the issue that caused you to overreact. It is important for you to remember that you are always evolving, you was not born a perfect person, as well as everybody else. I believe Jesus Christ, walk on the face, of this earth, when he was nailed to the cross, he prayed to his father and said "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing" a verse from the bible Luke 23:34. This verse shows me that when I over react, or if anybody else over reacts it is best to forgive.

To not forgive, you are giving your power away, meaning that you are allowing the situation or person to have some sort of control over your life. This causes anger, resentments, fear, and anxiety within yourself, which is unpleasant, joy, peace and contentment will be lacking from your life. To harvest life gracefully, the idea is to find joy, love, peace and contentment.

Below are some famous forgiveness quotes for you to think about, I am certain that you will see, how forgiveness fits very well in the process of learning how to harvest life gracefully.

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies –Voltaire

A mature Christian has capacity to absorb the offenses and weaknesses of others, not just demand they perform up to the code of ideals. --Stephen Crosby

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.—Unknown

Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were. --Cherie Carter-ScottHe who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.--George Herbert

Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die.—Unknown

He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.--George Herbert

Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die.—Unknown

Many people are afraid to forgive because they feel they must remember the wrong or they will not learn from it. The opposite is true. Through forgiveness, the wrong is released from its emotional stranglehold on us so that we can learn from it. Through the power and intelligence of the heart, the release of forgiveness brings expanded intelligence to work with the situation more effectively. -- David McArthur & Bruce McArthur

A Christian will find it cheaper to pardon than to resent. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, and the waste of spirit. --Hannah More

Forgiveness means that you've decided not to let it keep festering inside even if it only comes up once in awhile. --Doc Childre and Howard Martin

Sincere forgiveness isn't colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don't worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way and time—just like it does for you and me. --Sara Paddison

Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever.

--Lord Chesterfield

Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting. --William A. Ward

You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well. --Lewis B. Smedes

Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love. --Mahatma Gandhi

Forgiveness is the final form of love. --Reinhold Niebuhr

One forgives to the degree that one loves. --Francois de La Rochefoucauld

'Tis the most tender part of love, each other to forgive. --John Sheffield

We are all on a life long journey and the core of its meaning, the terrible demand of its centrality is forgiving and being forgiven. --Martha Kilpatrick

Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life. --George MacDonald

"Not to forgive is to be imprisoned by the past, by old grievances that do not permit life to proceed with new business. Not to forgive is to yield oneself to another's control... to be locked into a sequence of act and response, of outrage and revenge, tit for tat, escalating always. The present is endlessly overwhelmed and devoured by the past. Forgiveness frees the forgiver. It extracts the forgiver from someone else's nightmare." - Lance Morrow

Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future. Louis B. Smedes

When we forgive evil we do not excuse it, we do not tolerate it, we do not smother it. We look the evil full in the face, call it what it is, let its horror shock and stun and enrage us, and only then do we forgive it. Louis B. Smedes

Forgiving is love's toughest work, and love's biggest risk. If you twist it into something it was never meant to be, it can make you a doormat or an insufferable manipulator. Forgiving seems almost unnatural. Our sense of fairness tells us people should pay for the wrong they do. But forgiving is love's power to break nature's rule. -Lewis

I am a survivor of abuse and learned how to harvest life gracefully. Visit my blog as I write my story about my life. I am an activist on promoting child abuse awareness, I will be posting information about abuse in the effort to end child abuse, as well, on positive living.

http://harvestlife-survivorjane.blogspot.com/