Acceptance

Let’s talk about acceptance.  It’s a word we use a lot, especially in “spiritual” circles.  It’s one I often use in connection to the Stone Beings.  You have heard me say over and over how loving the stones are and how they offer unconditional acceptance.  But what does that really mean.  What is it to ACCEPT something or someone, really.

I found a quote that captures the essence of acceptance so beautifully. 

“to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.”
― Ellen Bass

Now this is what I’m talking about!  That is acceptance.  It’s not about tolerating things, people and circumstances because that is what is expected or because you can’t do anything about it so you might as well make the best of it.  It’s not about joining that which you can’t beat.  It’s about opening up your heart, even when you don’t like what you see or when what you see brings you pain, understanding that what you are truly opening your heart to is simply and purely love.  Opening your heart does not mean you are approving of the wrong actions of another or condoning agonizing circumstances.  No, not at all ... it means that you are beginning to open to the possibility that what has been sent to you may actually come from love, no matter how it appears.

The road that leads to this place of acceptance is a bumpy one.  It’s one that calls us to grope in the dark as we find our way forward.  One that requires us to reach in with both hands and pull out that which is buried in the deepest, darkest holes, not knowing what we’ll be pulling out with it.  If we can stomach the sludge and slime that covers the sparkle of that which lies beneath it, we will be gifted with something that will be ours forever ... truth.  We are asked to play in the dirt if we want to find this truth.  If we want to come to this space of acceptance ... we must muddy our hands.  But we are not asked to do it alone.  The Universe has gifted us with many mediums of support on our search through the thorn covered thickets.  We are guided and protected along the way.  It doesn’t mean we won’t get scratched ... such is the nature of the hero’s journey.  What it means is that we will be held and nurtured through the pain of those scratches.  We will be supported and loved through each step.

These guides show up for us in many different forms.  The stone beings are one such form ... a very beautiful form.  While they guide and support us, they tickle our senses through their many colours and shapes and through their texture and sparkle.  They are the perfect ones to guide us to the state of acceptance because they are all about acceptance ... gentle, quiet, still, pure acceptance.  They ARE acceptance, in the truest sense of the word.

So if you can’t yet open your heart to the terrors that line the path to the gates of acceptance, then open yourself up to the stone beings and allow them to ease the pain and quiet the fears that keep you frozen in the place you now stand.  They are gentle guides into a state of peaceful presence.  They patiently wait with you until you are ready to step forward, supporting and honouring your choices NO MATTER WHAT THEY ARE.

“To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert

This is what the stones teach through their very being ... simply through their presence.