Acceptance is surrendering to what is: our circumstances, our feelings, our problems. Before we can change anything, we have to recognize that this is the way life is right now. Sometimes (often?) this recognition comes with tears. Some things I have had to accept followed days of crying, then starting over, crying and accepting again. The best part about surrendering to reality is that it calms our breath. If we can breathe, we can think; if we can think, we can change things, even if only ourselves. When we admit to what is, tension lifts. There is nothing good to which acceptance is not prerequisite.
Example (you will have your own): My mother's cancer returned. She decided not to live with or die from the treatment, but from whatever took her first, even if it was the cancer. As soon as she accepted the truth about her prognosis, I could hear the long sigh of her soul. She softened, as did my father, the man who completed her for 63 married years. The tension left the room. The family knew what to do.
Healing can't begin until we accept what is. This is true for all that needs the cathartic process of change. I must accept the past, the present, people I love whom I cannot help, my own limitations as well as my strengths and the many losses that accumulate during a long life. With none of these should we struggle. If there are to be roadblocks, let them not be set by us. Isaiah 43:18 says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past."
We might add, "Accept the former things. Take the actions that acceptance dictates. Then do not dwell on the past." Help others change if we can. Help ourselves change without question. Maybe because the evidence was clear, or because my intuition led the way, but when I have accepted indisputable facts--seen clearly what I am up against--only than have I known what to do next. And . . . not a conclusion, just a fact I am sometimes slow to see . . . God has always been by my side. This is true for us all.
In peace, Nina Naomi
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