Accept

Being that I am a word person and one who loves to communicate, I thought it might do me good to start thinking about the meaning of some common every-day words.  To turn this thought into reality, I have decided to read about and reflect on a word from Words of Wisdom for Women, Rachel Snyder.  This is a book of 365 words, one for each day, but I won't be doing a word each day.  I will try to do a word each week.

Accept
The first thing it says under accept is Recognize what you can change and what you can't.  

For me, I think this is a hard thing to put into practice.  Most times, intellectually, I recognize what I cannot change but my emotions or spirit just don't want me to let it go.  I guess, I would have to admit to being stubborn, but no shame in that because stubbornness has its good points.

Second,  Accept that you can't do it all--and who would want to anyway? 

I used to try to do it all but I have gotten better at delegating because trying to be a Super Woman just became too much for me.  Life is Balance and I am trying my best to divide up my energy and not try to give more than I have.

Third, Accept that life isn't always fair and find the wonder in that, too.  I do believe that I have accepted this and I just take it in as part of my life.  I may whine about it for a little bit but then I do my best to let it go.  I still need to work on this.

Included in the book description of Accept is a flip of the coin that notes a few things that should not be accepted.

Don't accept things that aren't yours, like misdirected shame and blame.  Like credit for someone else's accomplishment.  Like disrespect.   Accept everything you are and nothing you are not.  
                                                                                                                               Rachel Snyder

And, one thing that has come to my mind is if someone says You need to accept me as I am; the bad with the good  I am okay with that.  I consider it a choice and if I say that I will accept them as they are and we are going to be in any kind of relationship, I would like that person to treat me with the same respect.  There is light and dark in all of us and in some circumstances, at least for me, balancing them can be a challenge.