The power of acceptance.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. We’ve all heard about The Serenity Prayer, but how many of us practice it? How many of us know how? Acceptance is the basis of happiness; it is what brings us ease and keeps us from unnecessary pain. When we learn to accept ourselves as we are, wonderful things begin to happen.
If you cannot accept who you are, who you really are, there is no way in the world you will ever be able to accept anything or anyone else. Over the years, our traumatic experiences may cause us to be possessive and to have abandonment issues. We may grow anxious, afraid things won’t go our way, as if our way is really a thing. We fear so much. We fear failure, and many of us fear success. We fear change, not knowing what’s on the other side, believing it’s our right to know. We grow hardened, affected by the lies and disappointments in our lives. We stop wishing to love or be loved, believing we are totally okay alone, believing we are independent, as if anything on earth has ever been. Each of us has been crushed. Each of us has been on high. Each of us is affected by each of us, and most of us have a hard time accepting just how affected we are! There is no better way to live than in the absolute truth, and yet, this is the place nobody wants to go.
When we accept the truth about how affected we are by all we’ve been through, we can finally stop pretending, we can lower our guards and stand in the truest definition of ourselves. This is where we will find happiness –– in being authentic, framing our flaws, and nailing them to the walls of our hearts for everyone to see. Maybe this takes guts, and maybe it’s brave, or maybe it’s just human, and that’s what we’ve been fighting against all along –– the frailty of our humanity.
Today, accept yourself as you are, in all forms, broken or whole. This is where you are now, but this is not the end, and acceptance is not approval.
