January 28

ACCEPTANCE MONTH: DAY 28: “I define nothing. Not beauty, not patriotism. I take each thing as it is, without prior rules about what it should be.” ― Bob Dylan

This may be the toughest lesson we can receive. To allow everything in the world to be as it is, and to have no agenda to make it anything else.

We all have a purpose and a journey here. It is to be walking the path that our soul is here to learn from. We will get support and teachings all along the way. Each of us is going to learn what we need and teach what we learn in ways that are different and perfect. That does not mean that the rest of the world is going to agree with or accept or like any of it.

No matter. I am not fit to judge or condemn or approve any of it. I just need to accept it. I want to always find the good and highest in each of the situations, people, and life experiences that come to me. There is always a gift, an ongoing lesson, a great deal of learning that is going to come to me. I am not going to be thrilled by them all.

My process has been exquisitely profound and painful throughout. I have been battered and beaten by so many things along the way. It is as if I were a very rough piece of stone that has been tumbled and softened by these terrific blows.

Today I am blessed because I can see the beauty and purpose of all of it. I am not bitter or disappointed or filled with the victim stance I once embraced. I am a recipient of so much grace that I am allowed to see benefit and gifting, rather than the idea that life is beating me up again. This is all I want. To be able to sit with what comes, especially those things that are not immediately pleasing, and be grateful for them and embrace them, no matter what they feel like.

I have a dear friend, and have had several others, who have walked with incredible situations for lifetimes and are filled with joy and love all the time. They teach me how I want to walk. My husband was one of these teachers. His poor body was racked with debilitating pain for over 40 years of his 57 years of life. He was so crippled and yet exhibited more love and joy in life than just about anyone I have ever met.

His battle with his emotional troubles was ongoing, but he never waivered in his ability to embrace life and show his warrior spirit. He died this way as well. I was with him continuously for his last 8 years of life, and never, ever heard a single disgruntled word from him. Not a single moment of self-pity. I can only hope to be his kind of courageous as I walk my path. I have been led by these friends into a way of being in life that challenges me to be a much better woman than the one I am today. And I do not get to sit with any part of this without learning who it is I want to be. But I cannot do anything but accept what comes, and to thank the Universal Power every day, for what it brings to my experience.