Serenity is Directly Proportional to Acceptance

Well, hello world. My serenity is directly proportional to my acceptance. That is the line that I have been noodling on for about 48 hours. We talked about it twice this week. In a meeting I was at Monday and on Tuesday, and the reminder was well timed. I actually need this reminder quite a bit. It seems pretty simple, maybe on the surface, but the more that I sit with it, the more it opens. Serenity is directly proportional to acceptance. The more I am willing to accept, the more serenity and peace of mind I am able to feel seems pretty straightforward. But I keep going. That does not mean that I have to like everything, agree with everything, or pretend that a difficult situation does not affect me. It just means I have to stop fighting everything, reality, long enough to clearly see what is actually in front of me. And I told this to a guy the other night. It's important to remember that we still have choices. We still have options and we still have actions that we can take. There's another line in a prayer that says we have the courage to change the things that we can. I mention that and I think about that a lot because what that tells me is that if I cannot accept something as it is, which is allowed, then I have to become willing to take an action and do my part to change it. That willingness, that courage, it matters. Because when I do that, it keeps me from falling into the cycle of self-pity resentment or feeling like I'm trapped. And I'm going to say this, it's probably the millionth time I've said this. Self-pity is the most toxic of all emotions. It traps us, it does. To further, and I think this is where people have to come to a somewhat of an understanding, what it means is that during the in between, when I come across a situation that disturbs me and the action that I'm going to take, while I'm wrestling with that, trying to take the next right action, figure out what that is, will my serenity be lessened? Yep. Yeah, it will. Sometimes it does. But that's part of the process, that acknowledging reality. Because growth rarely comes in comfort. I talk to this with my kids, my track kids all the time, there is no growth in comfort. That more often growth comes when you get uncomfortable, when you have to go through uncertainty, and when you have to stretch beyond yourself. And that happens when I choose to live differently than I used to. There is no growth in comfort. Because when I seek comfort above everything else, which was numbing my life, I tend to stay stuck. But when I am willing to lean into it, into that discomfort, to be honest, to accept the way that it is, and then to take an action where I can, I begin to grow, I begin to change. And all of this helps me see life with my eyes wide open. Because before, even though I did not realize at the time, I had lost the power of choice. You don't think you did, but you did. I reacted instead of responding. I would run away, hide in the garage, rather than face things. There was this avoidance rather than acceptance. And through these daily readings, meditations, discussions, meetings, I have that power of choice again. I have that power back. I have this ability to pause, to meditate, to reflect, and then to choose a better way forward. And man, what a gift that is. Peace.