Spiritual Prompts for the Week of June 12th-18th
I’d like to share my and hear your thoughts on acceptance
Wow, the contents of that feature image have thrown me for a bit of a loop. As I embarked on the journey to create this prompt, I knew that the word acceptance has several definitions and can mean many different things to many people and that even one person can ascribe varying import (meaning meaning) to the word depending on context. I experienced mild surprise when I looked up the word in my favorite dictionary¹ and found only five definitions for the verb (to accept)² and four definitions for the noun (acceptance).³ Moreover, given how people widely accept acceptance as a spiritual concept, I found it interesting how few of those definitions apply to the spiritual nature of the word and its practice. However, after consulting the dictionary, when I then searched for a feature image before starting to write, seeing that image with its 90 synonyms for acceptance has caused the mighty mousey plans of this man to stray slightly and issue this initial prompt herein:
Write an essay or poem inspired by your reaction to the feature image.
Now I shall steer this ship back to its intended course.
I believe that 12-step programs leave much to be desired and have much space in which to improve and adapt. Yet, I give credit where earned, and this snippet from page 417 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous (4th Edition)⁴ profoundly and positively impacted my life:
“And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation — some fact of my life — unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in [the universe]⁵ by mistake. …⁶unless I accept life on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and my attitudes.”
Upon turning back to that page today, I read on from there for the first time in many many years, and I noted these immediately following thoughts:
“Shakespeare said, ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.’ He forgot to mention that I was the chief critic. I was always able to see the flaw in every person, every situation. And I was always glad to point it out, because I knew you wanted perfection, just as I did. A.A. and acceptance have taught me that there is a bit of good in the worst of us and a bit of bad in the best of us; that we are all children of God and we each have a right to be here.”
Initially Intended Prompt — Create a poem or essay inspired by either or both of those sections of the quote.
A Few of My Own Brief Thoughts on the Quotes
Those 109 words in the first section of the quote contain a lifetime’s worth of wisdom and lessons. They perfectly explain the oft-misunderstood meaning of the Serenity Prayer.
“God, grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to the difference”
Many, as I did countless suns and moons ago, interpret this prayer to mean that we do not have any control over events and serenity ensues from letting go and letting God. This interpretation has validity but misses the deeper meaning — we cannot change another person or the past but we can change our own attitudes and reactions and expectations.
If you desire to change the world, great, I sure do. Acceptance does not mean turning the other cheek regarding either a person or the world. It means, in this respect, do not let the situation eat you up inside.
I interpret the quote as suggesting practicing acceptance in the moment and moment to moment but not having to accept the unacceptable as permanent. As I acrostically responded in February to jules’s KTHT prompt :
Yesterday I was Everlasting soul I am Today I can change
I can often find serenity in accepting at and in the moment but not accepting permanence. Patrick Paul Garlinger eloquently described this balancing act thusly in his essay 9 Signs That You’re Healing Spiritually:
“There’s a balance to be found between being present and accepting the present moment while still opening to a new way of being in the world. As you heal spiritually, you know the present moment is full of possibility and, in its own way, is perfect just as it is. Yet you also know that you are capable of co-creating with the Divine, and there are wonderful opportunities that can emerge in the future if you focus your attention and take divinely inspired action”
With respect to Patrick’s inclusion of “perfect just as it is” and the Big Book passage’s “situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment,” neither requires a belief in total predestination for one to feel impacted by those words. In fact, while I believe that soul contracts do provide for certain events with varying specificity, I believe free will, both our own and through many degrees of separation, shapes our lives. So, then how can I practice accepting that everything is as it is supposed to be? I’m actually formulating this thought as I write. Perhaps, moment by moment everything is as it is supposed to be because there is no other way for it to be because everything that caused the present moment is in the past and there is nothing I can do to change the past so therefore the only possibility for the present moment is for it to be just the way it is and since there are no other options, that is in some way the perfect occurrence.
“Life on life’s terms” — the real meaning of “it is what it is”
This is yet another lesson packed into the 109 words. I have often in a conversation responded, “it is what it is.” Many people wince at this. Some believe it is too much a cliche that should be removed from our lexicon. The way most people use it should be retired. Diana C. wrote brilliantly about this in “It Is What It Is,” in which Diana also discerns the meaning of the phrase as imparted by the 109 words.
I have discerned another, related meaning to the phrase. I live life on life’s terms, play the cards I am dealt, and I do not bitch anymore in the delusion of life not being fair. Life just is what it is.
Life is neither fair nor unfair. As touched on by the second portion of the quote, stop judging life and other people and comparing my life to someone else’s — my life is my life — my life just is — now live it.
Reminder: You can use my prompts here on PW or anywhere else on Medium (which I strongly encourage as it builds a wider audience and I believe in cross-pollination between and among publications). Regardless of where you publish, please tag me, and Ravyne and use “promptly written” as one of your reader interest tags, and include a link to this prompt.
In Rama I create, with soul-energy surging through my body, inspiring me and breathing wind into my sails,
Endnotes:
¹Webster Universal Dictionary, Unabridged International Edition (1968)
² 1.a To consent to take, receive (what is offered or given); 1.b to undertake duties of; 2.a To consent to, agree to, admit permit; 2.b (law) to receive personally; 2.c to take responsibility for, promise to pay, agree to meet.
³ 1. Taking of what is offered, act of consenting to receive; 2. Intellectual assent to, belief in; 3. (commerce.)The acknowledgment of a liability; an undertaking to pay a bill when presented.
⁴ In earlier editions of the book the language appears on page 449. I realized different editions may have different pagination when I read Marilyn Flower’s piece about how it is also her favorite passage in the book — https://readmedium.com/time-to-admit-im-in-breakdown-so-i-can-declare-and-create-a-breakthrough-3d40c879921f
⁵ In the original text, “ in God’s world.”
⁶ In the original text the ellipsed words are “ Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober;”
