When I think of acceptance in social terms, I think of two religions or denominations accepting one another, meaning that although they don’t agree on everything and they certainly don’t understand each other very well, they can agree to disagree, if not appreciate one another or even admire certain things about the other.
Or I think of accepting those of different sexual orientation. A straight man may not at all understand a gay man’s sexual preference, but he can still learn to appreciate the gay man, and vice versa.
And the examples could go on.
I’ve been thinking about acceptance because I know that I need to not only accept where I’m at right now, but also accept what I’ve left behind and the things that happened during the months prior to moving back home.
What I realized is that just as a religious group doesn’t have to like another religion’s beliefs in order to accept the people of that religion, I don’t have to like that I left behind so many good things, and I don’t necessarily have to understand it either. But in order to accept it, I need to stop fighting it. I know that it’s okay, even necessary, to feel angry and/or sad about it, but I can’t let those feelings overtake me. I need to learn to appreciate that I had those experiences (even the bad ones) instead of fighting the memory of them off.
In other news… here’s what I’m looking forward to about this weekend so far:
- Going grocery shopping tonight with my mom and brother (I know that sounds kind of ridiculous, but I honestly love grocery shopping… especially when I don’t have to pay for the groceries!)
- Getting coffee with my old roommate and one of my closest friends who will be in town tomorrow. I miss her so much.
- Taking my brother Nathan to a movie at the cheap theater tomorrow night.
- On Sunday I’m getting coffee with an old friend who lives in town.
- Sunday night I’m spending time with my sister
- Knowing that March starts on Monday!
That’s it for now. Happy Friday!
Learning to Live 
6 comments
Comments feed for this article
February 27, 2010 at 8:11 am
auntysocial
Hi – this is the first post I’ve read of yours and I just wanted to comment on what you’ve mentioned.
Acceptance and forgiveness are the two greatest things I think a person can have. As you’ve already pointed out, accepting something means you no longer wonder why something is the way it is or think too much into how it became that way or whether it can be changed. It doesn’t matter why or how and it can’t be changed because that’s how it is.
We all have our own little traits and quirks that won’t make sense to other people. My husband goes through the same bizarre little routines every day and I’ll never understand why, but I just accept that I’ll never know why he does it. He’ll never fathom why I do certain little things I do – I don’t even know why I do them!!
Freeing yourself from pointless, needless worry and endless amounts of wasteful thought can feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. 🙂
February 27, 2010 at 9:27 am
learning2live2010
auntysocial- thanks for commenting! I agree with you- forgiveness is very important too.
February 27, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Lua
Sounds like you have a great weekend planed! movie at the cheap theater is on my list too 🙂
You made some great points; it made me thing about my relationship with acceptance. Accepting is the hardest part of the whole process I guess… Once you do that, it gets much easier.
When I told my father that I wanted to quit my job and I didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore, that I wanted to be a writer, I could see in his eyes that he didn’t “understand” me. He didn’t understand my reasons for doing it, or why I was choosing a much difficult road when I could just be a lawyer. But he accepted it…
We still don’t see eye to eye and this matter but he accepted that I choose this road for myself and I accepted that he is never going to truly understand why I am doing what I’m doing.
Is it really important to understand? I believe not… I believe what’s important is to be able to accept that there will be changes in life, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, that there will be bumps on the road we choose from time to time and we have what it takes to overcome them. And like I said, once we learn to accept, it gets so much easier…
Have a great weekend! 🙂
February 28, 2010 at 1:33 am
learning2live2010
Thanks, Lua. I really struggle with accepting things sometimes because it seems to be in my nature to always be looking to understand the why’s and hows. This CAN be good, but even answering those questions doesn’t necessarily change anything. What I really think acceptance can ultimately bring is peace… Anyway, you have a great weekend too!! Yay for cheap theaters 🙂
February 28, 2010 at 2:03 am
Sunday Quotes
it is funny how much we seek acceptance in a bunch of different facets of our life. it is not easy in the least, but acceptance itself can really be a turning point in forward, positive progress.
it sounds like you have a great weekend planned. hope it’s going well
p.s. i just stumbled across your blog for the first time and i like it a lot =]
February 28, 2010 at 2:36 am
learning2live2010
Thanks, Sunday Quotes 🙂 You’re right; I hadn’t thought about how we also seek acceptance in a lot of different facets… such as acceptance from others (when often times we must learn to accept ourselves first.)