Perhaps you, like me, see the bare branches of trees seemingly
shivering in the winter wind and imagine that they long for springtime. That would
be a misuse of our imagination. One reason trees are great spiritual masters is
that they accept what is. As Brad Stulberg notes,
"Trees
don’t resist changes in the weather, or pretend they don’t exist, or try to
power through them. They are acutely aware of them, accept them, and adapt by
controlling what they can control. This all starts with paying close attention."
We
tend to spend a lot of energy wishing that things were different than they are.
We wish it were warmer. We wish it was time to go on vacation. We wish we didn’t
have to deal with the difficult aspects of our jobs. We wish our
family/community members were more considerate. What if, instead of resisting
the parts of life we don’t like, we paid close attention to them, accepted
them, and adapted to them? If God’s creative spirit is present in all things,
then all things can foster new life in us.
In
her book Kitchen Table Wisdom, Rachel
Naomi Remen offers the following meditation on accepting what is:
We are
all here for a single purpose: to grow in wisdom and to learn to love better.
We can do this through losing as well as winning, by having and by not having,
by succeeding or by failing. All we need to do is show up openhearted for
class. So fulfilling life’s purpose may depend more on how we play than what we
are dealt.
Whether
the day is frigid (as it is today) or downright balmy (as is predicted for the
weekend), let’s accept what is and show up for class!
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