I Believe In Grief

Life, as we all know is saturated with misfortune. Most of us are able to go through these and learn from and exempt ourselves. Yet, this isn’t always the case. People are faced with bone riveting experiences that often take a long time to get over, if they ever do get over it. These episodes brew in our brain popping up at the most random points often bringing our tone down. Although these experiences may scare us and fill us with ruefulness and penitence, we can’t continue to live in the past and let these regrets habituate us. Self forgiveness is a remedy to healing and to moving on in life, no matter how hard it is.

Forgiveness After Adversity Adversity shapes our character; forgiveness plays a huge part in it. If we are able to forgive, then the way people look at you can be changed, whether it is good or bad. You have to be able to understand and know what someone else is feeling. I think that many people have experienced adversity and some have been able to choose forgiveness as a path to shape their character. Forgiveness isn’t an easy option for most people, but it does work for others.

• Lizzie commented, “I believe I forgive others.” • Lizzie reflected on forgiveness is not saying the unkindness or hurt was okay, excusing people’s bad behavior, minimizing your hurt, releasing the person from making amends, forgetting that the painful thing happened, and giving gifts to the person you

" Everything matters not in spite of the end of you and all that you love, but because of it. Everything is all you've got-your wife's lips, your daughter's eyes, your brother's heart, your father's bones, and your own grief-and after Everything is

“Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past” written by Tyron Edwards. Sometimes changing your behavior is the only way to make up for a past, because you learn what are right actions, and what are wrong actions.

Forgive and forget - the motto that is ingrained in all of us from childhood, teaching us to be more compassionate and understanding, and ultimately developing us into better people, right? Perhaps not. While forgiveness is undoubtedly an important trait that enables people to overcome conflicts, where do we draw the line? There are no concrete or established rules on what the acceptable number of times to forgive someone or something is, so how can we define what is too much forgiveness? When does forgiveness go from a sign of your maturity, compassion, and strength, to a sign of your subservience and weakness? How can we be forgiving and thoughtful, without jeopardizing our own self-worth? These are all questions that arise in the memoir

Forgive today, live in peace tomorrow. Forgiveness; one of the many hardships we encounter throughout life. As Marianne Williamson, an American author, stated, “Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.” Forgiveness leads to peace because it lets go of all the negative feelings and allows freedom from disturbance to take place.

Thematic Statement: Forgiving someone for their mistake can make yourself free of anger and bitterness.

As human beings we are often reluctant to let go of our anger and unwilling to forgive others. This becomes especially true in the case of loved ones or family members. The poem, “How Do We Forgive Our Fathers?,” written by Dick Lourie, addresses the different dilemmas associated with a child forgiving his/her father. In his six-stanza poem, the poet discusses how a child should forgive their father for traumatic events imposed on the child. This includes reasons for forgiveness, appropriate time to forgive, and whether or not to even forgive at all. Detailed through the different stanzas, the poem suggests that until one learns how to appropriately forgive another for wrongful behavior, they will never be able to let go of resentment and

“It’s not just other people we need to forgive. We also need to forgive ourselves”.

In general, self-forgiveness is identified by a common ability to exhibit self-respect in spite of the acceptance of wrong-doing (Hall, J., Fincham, D., 2005). I never considered the distinction between interpersonal forgiveness and intrapersonal forgiveness. While they share many similarities, there is even greater evidence of the differences between the two. One significant difference involves the consequences of withholding forgiveness from self. It is likely that intrapersonal unforgiveness can be much more detrimental than interpersonal. Hall & Fincham state “ Self-forgiveness often entails a resolution to change” (2005). It is this process of acceptance of one’s own imperfections and sinful nature that catapults a desire for self-improvement and growth. This is a critical component of healing the soul and beginning the journey to spiritual and mental health. Also enlightening was the declaration that one can experience pseudo self forgiveness by failing to acknowledge any wrong doing and convincing him/herself that they are without fault. Finally, I was struck by the notion that self-forgiveness will typically

When we think of forgiveness we think of something done wrong. You should always forgive when someone does wrong because of you do not it will hold on to your memories. While it is alright to remember what was done to you, it is more important to forgive so you can accept it and go on with your life and not worry about it. Gandhi once said, “If we practice an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the whole world will be toothless and blind.” Gandhi is trying to tell us that everyone in the world does not have to be the same.

“Forgive the person and their actions, never give in to hate, let it go, set it free, and karma will take care of what is meant to be”

It is also vital to look at Wilson’s view on the practice of forgiveness and how if an individual decides to ignore it, it can place a road block in their process of change. She believes that God speaks about forgiveness for the following reasons:” (1) we are all sinners with whom to relate so we’ll need to become skillful forgivers (2) God makes forgiveness a centerpiece of our healing process because living in un-forgiveness is so much worse (Wilson, 2001).

“The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.”