The balm of acceptance soothes me, it is a quiet resting place balanced between the forces of attraction and rejection.

When I am accepting, possibility is wide and I am poised.

Acceptance can permeate me at different levels, from the mental acceptance of
'making the best of it' to the wide and deep allowing that is true tolerance.   In this way, accepting and embracing merge into each other.

In accepting the other or the conditions in which we find ourselves, we also accept ourselves.

It is here that we begin to have a true understanding of love.   We cannot accept without arousing love, for acceptance is another name for love.

The grace of true tolerance will find us if we lay the foundation and steadily allow ourselves to be vulnerable to it.

Criticism and judgement are put aside.   Again and again, we set them aside.

Patiently we say to ourselves, "Later, later, you can judge later, but, just for now, there is no place for judging."   In many cases, criticism is so deeply embedded in us that we need to trick ourselves into letting go for a while.   We are gentle with ourselves when we do not succeed.   We simply try again, without self-recrimination.

We turn our face towards the other, pay true attention to them, and seek to find the ground within that can accept them for what they are.   At first, we may find we can only accept parts of them, or accept them under certain conditions.   But, by loving persistence, we may find moments when our acceptance is deeper and wider.

We do this for our own sakes as much as for theirs.  But, with our children, we know that their very life depends on our ability to work at this.

Here is a story that is permeated with the quiet of acceptance.

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Maud Adams
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