A Place to Stand Together

Thoughts on the Serenity Prayer and acceptance as an access to creativity in the face of life's challenges.

Are you left or right?

Religious, spiritual, atheist?

For or against (fill in the blank)?

I used to have very clear political and spiritual boundaries.

I was interested in discussions within a narrow range of beliefs and opinions and actually thought I was openminded.

But anything outside of my understanding of the world was forbidden territory.

I was willing to learn about a lot of things, but when it came to the paradigms in which most of us define ourselves, I was closed.

In fact, I wouldn’t even look.

And if I’m really honest, I was afraid to look.

There be dragons.

I can remember that fear, though at this point in my life, I can’t quite recall what my rationale was.

I think that’s the point.

There was nothing rational about it.

I was taught that certain political and religious beliefs were inherently wrong and sometimes dangerous.

In fact, I was discouraged from even examining what exactly those other people believed, let alone why.

I write a fair bit about the time in my life (not so long ago) when I was struggling with chronic fatigue.

I write about it not because I have an interest in reminiscing or wallowing, but because those 13 years transformed my life and opened up possibilities I couldn’t have imagined before.

I know that makes no sense on the surface of it.

But it’s a paradox.

The more I lost of what I had, along with the identity I’d constructed around and inside of all of it, the more I became a blank slate.

Who are we if we're not our job? 

Our role in the community?

Our purpose?

The painful questions like, why is this happening to me, why can’t I fix it, what will become of me, are torture when you try and think your way out of them.

But something amazing happens when you accept that which you cannot change and focus on creating something new.

You begin to change.

Put in more accurate language, you transform.

Instead of changing from a square peg to a round peg, you are no longer a peg at all.

You’re like liquid, able to flow anywhere.

Perhaps a better analogy would be that you become that which can hold the pegs -- a vessel for whatever life brings.

When I let go of resisting life as it was, I was able to open myself to completely new ideas and ways of being.

The spectrum of other people’s opinions became a smorgasbord of beliefs and opinions that I still enjoy sampling today.

It was this openness, this willingness to accept what is, that allowed me to heal.

In the coming days, arguably the most consequential election of our lifetime will take place.

People are so entrenched in their opinions that there are already predictions of unrest and possibly violence.

The last few years have taught us that when we allow our fears to override our values, we lose common sense and even decency.

We lose our humanity.

What is important now, more than ever, is that we accept that which we cannot change.

I don’t mean that we should give up on our values, but that we should focus on that which we can create — beginning with ourselves.

There has never been a better time to be the change we wish to see in the world.

The world does not need more resistance in the form of anger, violence and destruction.

The world needs rationality, peace, and creativity.

And that is a place where we can all stand.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

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