Acceptance
“The
keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are,
and look realistically at the world around you. Have faith in
yourself and in the direction you have chosen.”
Ralph
Marston
The
Spirituality Group is focusing on acceptance this week. Each of us is
supposed to do some research about the topic, as well as put it into
practice, and into our meditation. We came to this choice because the
word “tolerance” is thrown about so much lately, and we've
decided collectively that it's not such a good word. When I put an
image to tolerance, I see someone holding their nose while disposing
of a dead rat. Being tolerant is not acceptance in the same way that
pity is not the same as sympathy.
According
to the pioneering psychologist, Albert Ellis, “Acceptance is not
love. You love a person because he or she has lovable traits, but you
can accept everybody just because they're alive and human.”
Acceptance implies non-judgment. We may see things differently,
but each of us has the human right to our own world view. That right
ends only when it becomes destructive to others. Acceptance is
reality based. This is how it is—not necessarily how I want it to
be. When we deal with the world as it is, we then have the option of
changing ourselves in relationship to it. In the words of actor,
Michael J. Fox, “Acceptance doesn't mean resignation; it means
understanding that something is what it is, and there's got to be a
way through it.”
I
have many lessons to learn about acceptance. More, I think, than I
can possibly achieve in one lifetime. But, I am on the way, and I hope
that you and I share the road.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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