We are all deceived by our expectations. In the endless stream of thoughts about how perfectly the world should align with what we expect, we miss the moment of life itself. By asking, “To accept or not to accept—that is the question,” we distance ourselves from life by miles.
We don’t need to accept.
Or even think about how to do it.
You don’t think about how to accept sunlight. Or the falling leaves.
Although, believe me, many people do… for some reason. I once did too.
Now, much in my life is not at all the way my expectations (my past experience, my fantasies, my overactive imagination) paint it. Not at all.
And caught in the thought, “But how can this be? It’s not the way it should be! Maybe this isn’t it after all?”—I realized I was drifting far from the moment, far from life, far from the joy of simply being.
Three times pah.
As the hero of Pleasantville noticed so precisely:
“There’s no ‘right’ house. There’s no ‘right’ car.”
There’s no “right” life, just as there’s no “perfect” person.
That person doesn’t exist. It’s a myth.
We are all living, breathing human beings—not characters stepped off the pages of Mr. or Mrs. Ideal.
The real thing that matters is the beauty you bring into this world.
And you know what that beauty is?
Not your youthful body.
Not your large, radiant eyes.
Not even the harmonious clothes you choose to wear.
Not even the paintings your hand creates—though that comes closer.
Beauty is the miracle through which you see life.
It’s your gaze, filled with love for the world, for existence itself.
And that love is acceptance.
Let it be.
Just let it be.
The universal answer to all questions of the “To be or not to be?” kind.
The moment I simply wanted to allow things to be, it all began to shift.
I’m not joking.
The “not quite right” started turning into “yes, yes, YES!”
And why think so hard about it?
Thoughts only pull me too far away from the actual experience of living.
From the moment of delight in being.