I’ve been struggling with the idea of Acceptance lately. Allowing life to unfold at its own pace, or as A Course in Miracles says: “Let it be what it is.”
I know that serenity comes from accepting what I cannot change.
Yet I yearn to return to normality. I deeply miss those days I could shop without a mask, do hot yoga in my favorite studio, hang out with friends, hug them goodbye.
But I also yearn for serenity amidst all the uncertainty. I feel conflicted, confused. Then I flash back to a memory.
I am visiting my daughter who works on a farm. The seedlings in the greenhouse need to be planted. The baby chicks, now mature hens, must be moved to bigger quarters. But it’s pouring. And rain is forecast for the next few days.
“You can’t plant when it rains,” Anna explains. “The fields are too fragile. And the ground’s too wet to drive the truck to the other henhouse.”
Here we are, all geared up to do both. I watch in awe at what happens next. No one gets uptight. No one curses nature. Instead, the farm owner shrugs his shoulders, and says: “Enjoy the down time.”
Grounded in a deep sense of faith, a deference to forces out of their control, everyone easily dispenses with their plans and take on other chores—they create a brochure, wash the eggs, make rhubarb pies—with nary a complaint. Eventually the seeds are planted and the hens are moved.
Acceptance isn’t just tolerating the unexpected, but deeply trusting in divine order, doing whatever we can in the moment.
Sure, I’m tempted to complain about current conditions. But serenity is my priority. So I put on my mask, pop the hand sanitizer into my purse, head for the market with gratitude for all the good that’s on its way.
All of that said, there are things in life we shouldn’t just accept. After all serenity also comes from changing the things we can. For too many years, black women and men have been living with discrimination, large and small, that I, as a privileged white woman (albeit Jewish), know about only from a distance.
But that distance has suddenly disappeared and I’m devastated by the pain and horrors prejudice produces. If ever the world needed empowered women (along with enlightened men), it’s now.
Here’s my question to you, my beloved community. What can I do, what can you do, to to rise above racism—not at some future time—but right now? Please leave a comment below.
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