ACCEPTANCE : THE BEAUTY OF WHAT IS.

The Stoic principle that tells us – Recognize what is under your control and what isn't under your control.  Don't worry about what isn't under your control – it is acceptance.  It is not giving in or rolling over, but accepting what is.  To not accept what is, is pure ignorance.

Not accepting what is, is being closed off.  Accepting the circumstances and working within the reality that we find ourselves in creates opportunities and novelty where we can challenge ourselves and do so learn new things so that we may grow and expand in consciousness and in being.

If I never accepted anything, I would always be recapitulating what I already knew and understood.  By accepting the unknown, or what is, a tension is created, a spark of inspiration awaits me where I am still in uncertainty and still in the possibilities. 

I accept myself for who I am.  I accept you for who you are.  I accept that there is a pain in my past, present, and future, but I not accept suffering, because they're in the moment there is a choice.  I accept pain, death, uncertainty, and imperfection.  But, where there is a choice to do, act, behave better, I choose to accept that I can do, act, and behave better.

To love myself, I have to accept myself for who I am.  But, I can accept or choose to try, think, and rise above what I can accept.  To not accept myself or you for who I and you are, is to turn away from the truth, for the truth can be denied, but that does not mean that the truth is not the truth.

To accept hatred, violence, indignation is to accept a lie.  Evil is a distortion of the truth and when we accept evil into our hearts it changes our minds, our character and this distorts how we act, think, speak and behave.  Then we turn away from the truth.  The truth is the truth.  An opinion, a belief, conviction, these are not the truth.  The truth does not sit on a scale or have many shades or variants.

The truth is a reality that has no opposite, the only reality there is.  There are no little white truths.  The truth is a constant it is either the truth or it is not.  A lie is not the opposite of the truth.  It is like the universe, it is ever expanding and if you cannot realize the truth you may think that is contracting, but it is you trying to objectify or embrace what is and only what is... the truth.

If we are able to open our hearts and minds then we would be free to accept almost anything.  But, we hold so damn tight to what we think is right, with all of our might we cannot even begin to accept a viable alternative, let alone a radical new approach.  Mired in our mediocrity, we slog along with our binders on.

Will the truth set you free?  We don’t know if we do not strive earnestly towards such a wonderful goal.  The road to truth has many barriers.  The most challenging to remove is our self.  Often times we stand in our own way, blocking the possibility of change and growth.

Accept acceptance and set aside conventional thinking, stick your head in the box out of the box, it does not matter empirically what matters is that we don’t cut ourselves off to what might be – reevaluation, revision, resolution, and more than anything receptivity – the lost art of trying something on for size, running it up a flag pole and taking it for a test drive.  How do we know until we try?

So many of us are stuck in our ways and rage against the dying of the light; but how do we know what awaits us in the far reaches of the darkness unless we have the courage to take that first step and try.

 JEFF TURNBULL