Acceptance is the key to Peace. . .

To be at peace is my goal.  It’s my intention.  I’ve even decided to adopt it as my mission statement.  I WANT TO LIVE AN INTENTIONALLY PEACEFUL LIFE WHICH REQUIRES THAT I OFFER THE HAND OF PEACE TO MY FELLOW TRAVELERS.  I was with some women at lunch today and the idea of a mission statement for ourselves came up.  Each of us felt a kinship with the idea.  Living haphazardly, as many of us did in the past, is no longer appealing.  Maturation makes the difference, I think.  But so does the decision to live more selflessly count.  Getting up every morning with an eagerness about where the day’s events might take us is exhilarating.  Passively waiting to see what might happen has lost its luster.  But there is a very fine line between “laying back,” and moving into the imagined opportunity.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I don’t want my life to be so minutely planned that I will never “veer off course.”  Stepping “off the path” on occasion is no doubt good for us.  It can sharpen our skills of observation.  Being too tightly wound, as some might describe us, defeats the purpose of living intentionally moment by moment.  Unexpected opportunities should be acknowledged and at least occasionally taken advantage of.  In those instances, we most likely will be off course for a time.  But returning to our mission, with new insights, benefits not only our life but the lives of those people we share the path with.

What my nearly 74 years of living has shown me is that simply, and intentionally, accepting the unchangeable is the least painful way of moving forward in life.  There are always aspects that can be changed but those fall into one category only: they are the attitudes, behaviors, and opinions that I hold that can be changed.  I hated this notion initially.  I was sure that others’ behavior, if changed, would promise me the peace I sought.  Perhaps that might happen, in fact.  However, I can’t make someone else change.  No part of someone else can I change.  Once we completely understand this, we will celebrate it.  It removes the burden of someone else’s life off our shoulders.  Being in charge of the behaviors or the opinions of any one else feels like living in more than one body at a time.  It’s exhausting.  It’s unfulfilling.  It breeds chaos.  Never the peace we so dearly deserve.

What’s your intention for the rest of your life?  Today is as good a day as any to write your mission statement.  Wouldn’t you agree?