Acceptance is the solution to everything. . .
I love the simplicity of this solution to whatever is getting under my skin at the moment. Any moment. I well remember being given the small blue booklet titled Acceptance when I came into the 12 step rooms of recovery back in the mid 70’s. The first time I read it, it offered great relief and on every subsequent reading too. I experienced a big sigh of relief washing over me, in fact. Acceptance was such a simple suggestion but it moved me in a profound way. I had never before felt hope at such a deep level. I knew, without a doubt, that something powerful had happened within me.
When I came into the fellowship I was pretty bereft, for sure, but getting such a mystical sense of well being so quickly from reading a short, simple booklet didn’t seem logical. I didn’t want to doubt the potential it offered me though. It felt too delicious. And I heard others refer to the same little booklet at nearly every meeting. It seemed like all of us were being “carried” by the same simple message. How grateful I was to my sponsor for giving me the booklet. I wore many of them out, over the years, and I gave many away too.
That’s one of the beauties of the fellowship and the connections we make. In one way or another we all “have each others’ backs.” Everyone knows what hopelessness feels like and none of us wants to go there ever again. Seeing our friends trapped in that phase is troubling, and all too familiar. Helping them find their way out helps us too. Every suggestion we offer someone else is like reviewing for a test we may have to take one day again too. The more reviewing we have done, the better we will do when faced with the same or a similar situation.
The founders of our fellowship intuitively understood that people needed to talk to each other, to share honestly the details of who they were and what their fears were about in order to get free of them. When any two are gathered together, we now know that God is present too. It’s in that sharing that the hope that’s promised in the act of acceptance is allowed to manifest.
Wisdom often comes in unexpected ways. Our primary need is to be willing and ready to receive it. The next phase is then to be just as willing and ready to pass it on to someone else. It’s a never-ending circle. Hallelujah.
