ACCEPTANCE...LOOSE IT AND LET IT GO

So instead of giving all of our attention to throwing rocks, we can do our best throughout the day to dig a new channel straight to the Lord in those around us...by being patient, by being loyal, by always keeping our eyes on their welfare rather than our own. -- "Words to Live By," Eknath Easwaran,  July 15

 

In this quarantined time we are in, it is difficult to feel we are being of real help to others...but the idea from my Easwaran reading today just inspired the realization that our thoughts for the benefit of others count. 

Thoughts not of how to fix others but of gratitude that the others are in our life...that they have made themselves known to us...either by reaching out for help or by sending less-than-wonderful thoughts toward us. Those are the thoughts we nurture by our steady resistance to them.  And, who's kidding whom, those thoughts are the pearls for they turn us to God faster than any pleasant-in-passing thoughts. 

Those perceived barbs, snarks and snubs are tools we can use by learning not to nurture our own judgmental thoughts...which will come as long as our ego has a say. Our ego justifies those nurtured thoughts by naming them "responding in kind," "pay back" and/or "standing up for myself." The key word, we must remember, is "justify," an ever self-determined objective. 

When we justify our own judgmental thoughts, we are giving truth to the others' so-called lies. If they are lies, why acknowledge them? Old saw: Least said, soonest mended. 

If, however, they are not lies, why quibble over the package they came in? Better to get grateful they have been called to our attention for acceptance. In the act of accepting, we loose them and let them go. 

Thank you.