The Art of Acceptance

Peace in the Moment, Just as It Is

Do you know how to practice the fine art of acceptance? Can you soften for at least a little while and let life be, just the way it is? Can you let go of the compulsion to change, to manipulate, to micromanage yourself or the world? Can you instead settle into this moment without any resistance at all?

Wisdom asks us to see clearly the truth of what is. It asks us to bear witness to life, unflinchingly and with grace. Cultivating peace in the world requires us to cultivate peace within. If we hope to end with peace, we need to start with peace, and that requires us to acknowledge the world exactly as it is.

And so what if today, just as an experiment, we temper our fiery will with a healthy dose of surrender? What if instead of marching toward perfection, we accept all that is. What if we embrace ourselves and our lives, just as they are?

Doesn't this possibility secretly thrill you? Do your shoulders soften when you consider fighting less and yielding more? Do you sense some rightness to the conviction that there is a way to live in deeper harmony and accord? Do you long to welcome that possibility into your life?

Let's become good friends with a way of being that allows us to release our tight grip on the reins. Let's remember how to settle in without resistance on occasion, perhaps sometimes even to sink. Let's forsake the exhaustion that comes from bracing ourselves against what is and what might be. Let's resist a little less and say yes a little more.

Perhaps we might say yes to sweet surrender. We might say yes to feelings of contentment and true love. We might let go of the promise of the future and settle into the perfection of the now. We might hold close to the question: "Can I make peace with this moment, just as it is?"

Such a spirit requires a mind shift away from picking and choosing, toward a willingness to accept with grace and gratitude exactly what lies before us. It requires us to be a bit suspicious of our never-ending opinions about what is good and what is bad, what we need and what we don't, what is paradise and what is devastation. It asks us to welcome the crazy cacophony of life into our arms, even when we might have asked for something else.

All of this requires a certain surety of self. It requires a steady confidence that we have the strength of heart to manage every last delight and sorrow that life might send our way. It asks of us deep faithfulness that everything is going to be okay, even when life appears to be a mess. It requires faith that despite the letting go - or perhaps even because of the letting go - we will be held and nourished by the soft hands of life.

In the season ahead, let's practice the fine art of letting go. Let's look beyond the delusion of nonstop improvement and see clearly this beautiful moment we now face. Let's gratefully accept all that we are offered with a resounding yes, and with a willingness to pour our entire being into life’s unfolding.

What a gift it will be settle with acceptance and ease into to sanctuary of the present moment. How wise we will grow when we are certain of nothing, but open to everything. And how beautiful, in the process, to reclaim our innocence, our wonder, our faithfulness, our life.