ACCEPTANCE MONTH: DAY 9: “How wonderful! How wonderful! All things are perfect, exactly as they are.” ― Gautama Buddha
I love this quote! I see it when I open the document that houses the quotes I gather each month, and it jumped out at me today…an unusual thing for a Monday, when I am running very late for the things I must do today.
So, what? My story is playing in my head and I got to see it…showing me, yet again, how full of shit my head is! Woohoo!
Life is here! Life is now! Life is in session and there is so much happening that is going to create what comes and I don’t know anything about anything that isn’t already done and over. OK!
So, at this moment, it is like that for me…I am always full of shit when I have the notion that I know what I am supposed to be doing and when. It may or may not be true.
My commitment to myself comes first. This is part of that commitment. I have been thrown off by the rain. Something so wonderful and so welcome is messing with me. I don’t like it! Hahaha! So, I must accept and work with it.
Acceptance is something many new members struggle with. We sometimes seem to believe that acceptance implies liking what we are accepting.
My first experience with this was when I was about 3 and discovered I wasn’t a boy. Ugh! I was SO mad! Then my daddy told me all the good things he believed about girls and I was somewhat mollified. I wanted to be a droid, although that word did not exist then. But I wanted to be a boy-girl or girl-boy. It was confusing.
Finally, I accepted being a girl and let my mom dress me in those horrible little dresses of the 1950s with 5000 petticoats that stuck out…and little white socks and little white gloves. What a train wreck! I could not stay nice and clean. I had pretty, long, blonde hair, but it refused to stay in ringlets. It refused! So, I had to accept being a girl with wild hair who could not stay clean.
Then there were other acceptances that I did battle with over the years, but that was one that stands out.
Getting to this deal, we are talking about Step 1, but in every instance, life hands me things I do not want to like OR accept. Aging, the hair thing has never been completely resolved, rain (even though I know we desperately need it!), traffic, etc. SO MANY THINGS! And then I read a quote like that and laugh and let go of what I think.
Really, it is just what I think. It has always been just what I think. The problem, the problem, the problem. Always what I think. So, if I let go of thinking (PLEASE! CAN I????), the world would be so much simpler and I would just smile and say THANK YOU to whatever comes. OK! That works! And there, my friends lies the solution, housed in a challenge. STOP THINKING!!! Accept it ALL!! (I am quite fond of exclamation marks today I can see.)
I invite you to just say thank you to all of it. Stuck in rainy traffic? Say thank you. Perhaps a nice song will play on your stereo that lifts you up. Perhaps you can flirt with a truck driver (okay, that part of being a girl is so fun!) or someone in the next car. Thank the rain and the traffic. Thank the transportation that you are using, whatever it may be.
Spend an entire day in thanking every person and experience you encounter. Even, (or should I say especially?), the things you don’t like. They teach us more than the things we like. It is like being a small child. If all we ate were those things we like…for me, it was artichokes (weird kid, huh?). I would never have tasted lobster or abalone (YES!) or parsnips or carrots. And I LOVE all of those. So, I must learn to accept things like being an addict who needs recovery! THAT seemed SO impossible. And today, the greatest gift I ever received.
So, open your heart and accept everything and say thank you. See how that goes. And if you are inclined to love the Buddha, perhaps say “How wonderful! How wonderful!” as well. Peace!
Dolphin Hug 