acceptance
there is a quaint little shop on bancroft way called avant card, where i have discovered several treasures in the past. i discovered this little rilke treasure there yesterday:
what does it mean to 'accept' - in all situations, at all times? this question has taken me all over the place. as i see it, to accept means to take whatever comes my way with gracious, well, acceptance. to acknowledge that this is how it is. to see things 'as they are'. to not wish for change, or not wish for no change - as the case may be. to look around myself and drink in my environment, the people, my interactions. to not wish for things to 'go away' or to 'come quickly'. to not look back to the past and wonder 'why' or 'why not'. to not look into the future and think 'i wish' or 'if only'....
when i accept my life the way it is, in this moment and these surroundings, with these people or those, i become one with the moment - i am mindful. there are no worries from the past, no concerns about the future. i am here. in the now. i am mindful.
when i'm not in full acceptance of my present, i want things to be different. i want a person or thing i do not have right now, perhaps. or i want to remove elements from the now. my thoughts are elsewhere, they are not here. then how can i be mindful?
was the proof that simple? so a good way to achieve mindfulness and detachment then, is to humbly, calmly, graciously accept everything as it is. here i am, in the musical offering, having finished my lapsang souchong, seated on a long table with two others who work on their respective laptops. the cafe fills with the chatter of its customers, and lovely music fills the air with happiness. people sit in solitude as they study/work. people sit with friends and share a cup of coffee and scones. the windows and the high ceiling let in buckets of sunshine. the door opens and closes every 20 seconds as someone comes in, someone leaves. in this moment, there is life, if i choose to accept it. in this moment, there is pain, if i choose not to. which is the path of peace? can you tell? i think i can.
i beg you... to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. and the point is, to live everything. live the questions now. perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.it speaks to my self-embraced lesson for the week - acceptance (and/or surrender, depending on how you look at it). the more i think about it, the more i find it fits into my earlier post on the proof of mindfulness equalling detachment. i now add acceptance into the equation, and it feels like a great achievement :).
what does it mean to 'accept' - in all situations, at all times? this question has taken me all over the place. as i see it, to accept means to take whatever comes my way with gracious, well, acceptance. to acknowledge that this is how it is. to see things 'as they are'. to not wish for change, or not wish for no change - as the case may be. to look around myself and drink in my environment, the people, my interactions. to not wish for things to 'go away' or to 'come quickly'. to not look back to the past and wonder 'why' or 'why not'. to not look into the future and think 'i wish' or 'if only'....
when i accept my life the way it is, in this moment and these surroundings, with these people or those, i become one with the moment - i am mindful. there are no worries from the past, no concerns about the future. i am here. in the now. i am mindful.
when i'm not in full acceptance of my present, i want things to be different. i want a person or thing i do not have right now, perhaps. or i want to remove elements from the now. my thoughts are elsewhere, they are not here. then how can i be mindful?
was the proof that simple? so a good way to achieve mindfulness and detachment then, is to humbly, calmly, graciously accept everything as it is. here i am, in the musical offering, having finished my lapsang souchong, seated on a long table with two others who work on their respective laptops. the cafe fills with the chatter of its customers, and lovely music fills the air with happiness. people sit in solitude as they study/work. people sit with friends and share a cup of coffee and scones. the windows and the high ceiling let in buckets of sunshine. the door opens and closes every 20 seconds as someone comes in, someone leaves. in this moment, there is life, if i choose to accept it. in this moment, there is pain, if i choose not to. which is the path of peace? can you tell? i think i can.
1 comment:
so be it.
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