ACCEPTANCE is THE KEY? –
June 6, 2025 – The transformative or transcendent potential of love has been reported for thousands of years. It’s been suggested as a means of connecting with the infinite, with what lies at the heart of being, with universal consciousness – however you want to call it in spiritual practices from Christian contemplation to Buddhist compassion to Sufi mysticism.
Wishing things were different from how they are (I’m going to call it WTWD) is one of the more potentially problematic aspects of being human; no other species seems to bother with it. WTWD, obviously, is often fruitful, leading us to take action to make things better. But be honest: how much time do you expend on it that doesn’t bring any benefit, or that indeed adds to your personal quota of suffering?
For me, the answer is a great deal. I do a lot of WTWD: wishing I had more money, wishing the weather was better, wishing people would be how I want them to be, wishing I was more popular….tons of stuff like that, almost all the time. Add to this the time I spend absorbed in dwelling on an activity other than the one I’m currently engaged in: what am I going to have for dinner this evening? Where am I going after this Pilates class? What’s the wife going to say when I arrive home without the tofu? That’s a whole other way of escaping from ‘what is’.
