“It is therefore of supreme importance that we consent to live not for ourselves but for others. When we do this we will be able first of all to face and accept our own limitations. As long as we secretly adore ourselves, our own deficiencies will remain to torture us with an apparent defilement. But if we live for others, we will gradually discover that no expects us to be ‘as gods’. We will see that we are human, like everyone else, that we all have weaknesses and deficiencies, and that these limitations of ours play a most important part in all our lives. It is because of them that we need others and others need us. We are not all weak in the same spots, and so we supplement and complete one another, each one making up in himself for the lack in another.” – Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

Do you accept yourself exactly as you now are? Are you willing to be at peace – for the moment – with with yourself and the world around you? If so, you have begun to unlock the secret of acceptance.

Acceptance allows your heart to be at rest. A heart at rest is open to receive inner wisdom. Inner wisdom can and will guide, if you let it.

Now, acceptance doesn’t mean that you give up on the possibility for a brighter future or a stronger, better you, but it does demonstrate your willingness to begin a new cycle with an untroubled heart. Acceptance does not imply capitulation, neither does it denote an abandonment of responsibility. In fact, inherent in acceptance is the determination to let love and truth shape the future, rather than opinion and judgment.