Tag Archives: acceptance

Grief, Acceptance, and Grace

Posted on by under Personal Life Reflections

This past week has been a hard one. Filled with losses that don’t make sense.

A baby left in the car.
A sister’s body found outside an apartment building.
A dear friend who jumped into a lake and never resurfaced.

I think during such times of unexplainable tragedy, it’s natural for us to want to make sense of what happened.

How do you forget your baby in the car for 8 hrs.? How did you not see him on your way to work? How did your sister die? Why was she lying outside of an apartment building? Who was with her that night? How could such a good swimmer dive into a lake and not resurface? Why were there not cuts, bruises, or abrasions on his body?

What happened?
What happened?
What happened?
Why?!

I think of the five stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I think that they must have left out the stage of wanting to make sense. Or is it part of denial?

I think about my dear friend in his last moments. About the baby. About the sister. In that moment, just before death, when time is frozen and all is quiet, what was he thinking about? His family? His life experience thus far? Childhood memories? Did he think, “Ok I’m going to die now”? Was he scared? Was he peaceful?

Questions. Questions. Questions.
These are what we’re left with when our loved ones are snatched away from us without warning. Questions to which we likely will never know the answers. “I don’t know,” being the sole answer we must carry forth.

I don’t know why.
I don’t know how.
I don’t know.

I think how as humans it’s against our nature to admit that we don’t know. It’s against our nature to accept that we may never know. That some things will never make sense. That maybe not everything is supposed to. Acceptance.

Acceptance invites faith, freeing the chains of uncertainty that bind us to the dark. Acceptance and faith, I realize, go hand in hand. Together they form the sliver of light in our stormy sea of darkness.

Acceptance is our freedom.
Faith our guiding hand.
And grace our greatest gift.
This much I know.

The Only Thanksgiving Recipe You’ll Ever Need

Posted on by under How To/Advice, Personal Life Reflections

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving to all of you!

I know many people are busy preparing recipes for their Thanksgiving feast but today, I want to offer you the opportunity to make a more meaningful Thanksgiving Recipe. This recipe is not about food that you eat, but rather it’s about food for your soul. Its ingredients consist not of turkey and gravy but of joy and meaning.

If you have five minutes, I encourage you to try this out. I recently completed my own Thanksgiving Recipe with my personal Ingredients for Joy and Meaning and I think that it has immense benefits. I’ll explain more later on…

Are you ready? Here we go…

Grab a pen and paper and make a list that answers this question: “When things are going really well in your life, what does it look like?”

Call the list “My Thanksgiving Recipe: Ingredients for Joy and Meaning.” This is your personal Thanksgiving Recipe and I promise you it will be more fulfilling than any other dish you feast upon this holiday season.

Here is a sample with some of the items from my personal Thanksgiving Recipe: Ingredients for Joy and Meaning (to give you some ideas):

– Eating Healthy
– Exercising regularly
– Plenty of sleep
– Lots of time spent in the company of friends
– Meaningful work that doesn’t consume me
– Time spent reading and writing
– Going to church regularly
– Plenty of time to spend with my dog
– Time for singing, dancing, and performing
– Creating and regularing sharing my work with other people
– Not being overly concerned or consumed by family affairs and/or drama
– Time spent outside/exploring
– Adventures and new experiences
– Someone to go on adventures and share these new experiences with who equally enjoys them
– Connecting deeply and spiritually with at least one other person
– Romance
– Progressing towards an established and realistic goal

Once you have finished your Thanksgiving Recipe: Ingredients for Joy and Meaning, now I want you to write a “Dream List” consisting of all of the things that you want to accomplish and/or acquire in your lifetime.

After you’ve completed both lists, compare the two.

I think you may be surprised to find, as I was, that nothing on my “Dream List” in any way enhances or changes my “Thanksgiving Recipe: Ingredients for Joy and Meaning” list.

In other words, if we can simply let go of our “Dream List” and begin to embrace our “Ingredients for Joy and Meaning” list, we’ll realize that we’re already living out our dreams, right now. What more could we possibly have to be thankful for?!

As you go about your Thanksgiving holiday, feel free to pass along this important recipe to your loved ones. And remember, gratitude and joy always go hand in hand.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Brief Insight on Compliments

Posted on by under Daily Inspiration, How To/Advice

A compliment is a gift.

If you question it, you may give cause for the Offeror to take it back.

Fix your problems by forgetting they’re problems

Posted on by under Daily Inspiration

We fix our problems by forgetting that they’re problems and reminding ourselves that they’re actually gifts.

Surrender (A Poem)

Posted on by under Poetry

A milk has gone bad, throw it away.
Your tires are flat, switch them up.
No need to complain or make sense of these things
All that you’ve done is enough.

A lover has left, let them go free.
Wages were lost, look for more.
No need to dwell or make sense of these things
Resistance can be quite the bore.

Surrender to what is,
then do what you can.
There’s no need to ask,
“Why must this occur?”

For all that you need
is right where you stand.
And you can’t fathom Ways
that are higher than yours.

A Letter From My Mother

Posted on by under Personal Life Reflections

My most precious child,

If there is any lesson I would want to leave with you, it is to love yourself. Find peace with who you are and don’t look outside yourself for acceptance and love. Find it deep within yourself and treasure it always. When you love yourself like that, you will know the kind of love I will always have for you.

Love, Mom

Unity First

Posted on by under Conversations with God

When it comes to the issues of conscientiousness in the Bible, for example alcohol, use of profanity, piercings, tattoos ect, I believe you ought to develop your own convictions about these things, and then try your very best not to offend anyone else’s.

Afterall, it’s not about the laws or how well you keep them, but about what God has already done for you, through his son Jesus Christ, and what He continues to do in your heart today.

In short, find unity around Jesus and don’t let that unity be divided by something secondary.

Life is a Journey, Not A Destination

Posted on by under Daily Inspiration, Thought for the Day

acceptance
Life is a journey, not a destination. The key is staying realistic about where you are on it at any given moment, and then appreciating that reality.

Albert Einstein’s Last Words

Posted on by under Daily Inspiration, Quotes

When Albert Einstein was on his death bed surrounded by friends they asked him, “Al, is there anything else you would like to tell us before you go?” And he responded, “Yes. I’d really like to know if the universe is friendly. Because if it is, 90% of our reactions are useless.”

Einstein_laughing

LifeDance

Posted on by under Daily Inspiration, Thought for the Day

“the area dividing the brain and the soul

is affected in many ways by

experience-

some lose all mind and become soul:

insane.

some lose all soul and become mind:

intellectual.

some lose both and become:

accepted.”