Lessons in Acceptance

It’s been a challenging end of the week with another gut upset slowing me down, along with the return to colder weather here in Minnesota. Both have kept me indoors, moving slowly, eating little, and spending my time reading and resting since Thursday.

I feel like life is giving me

Lessons in Acceptance

Despite the fact that I am experiencing  pain and that I would rather be eating whatever I feel like eating, I don’t feel like I’m suffering. Even the curtailment of normal activities isn’t bothering me much. And I think that it is because I am learning to pause and observe sensations and thoughts rather than becoming identified with them.

When I allow myself to become present and to simply observe the pain, the thoughts, the weather, whatever I am experiencing without personalizing it, I discover that each of these things is continually changing. Early this morning I woke up and had trouble going back to sleep. I focused on simply noticing the sensations in my body and the thoughts swirling in my mind. They were in constant motion and never the same from one second to the next. Slowly I relaxed into sensing the sensations  and simply noticing the thoughts. Soon I drifted off to sleep.

The Full Catastrophe

I don’t mean to be Pollyanna-ish here. If I could live without health and pain challenges I would. But the practice of mindfulness and presence has made  a positive difference in the way I experience “the full catastrophe” of life.

Instead of viewing life’s challenges as something to overcome or fix I’m working on allowing everything, even my occasional feelings of frustration or anger. Everyone has their own set of challenges and painful experiences in life. Sometimes they are visible. But often we keep them hidden, thinking that somehow no one else suffers the way we do or that it is shameful to be less than perfect.

I think that becoming vulnerable and allowing others to see the reality of our life experiences may help others to feel that they are not alone. Perfection is an illusion. And being real and compassionate starts with accepting and embracing our own imperfection.

Settle in the here and now

Reach down into the center

where the world is not spinning

and drink this holy peace.

Feel relief flood into every

cell. Nothing to do. Nothing

to be but what you are already

Nothing to receive but what

flows effortlessly from the

mystery into form

Nothing to run from or run

toward. Just this breath,

Awareness knowing itself as

embodiment. Just this breath,

awareness waking up to truth.

― Danna Faulds

Though I might wish to be “normal,” whatever that is, I believe that everything in my life is teaching me lessons in acceptance, perhaps especially the challenging aspects of life.

Are you also discovering lessons in acceptance in your life?

May you walk in beauty.

Note: Photos in today’s post are images I made in 2021 and re-edited today.