The hardest thing about saying yes to the our
community is that it means accepting everything life puts in front of us. Most
of us have a habit of going through our days saying no to the things we don't
like and yes to the things we do, and yet, everything we encounter is our life.
We may be afraid that if we say yes to the things we don't like, we will be
stuck with them forever, but really, it is only through acknowledging the
existence of what's not working for us that we can begin the process of change.
So saying yes doesn't mean indiscriminately accepting things that don't work
for us. It means conversing with the universe, and starting the conversation with
a very powerful word--yes.
When we say yes to our community, we enter into a
state of trust that whatever our situation is, we can work with it. We express
confidence in ourselves, and the each other, and we also express a willingness
to learn from whatever comes our way, rather than running and hiding when we
don't like what we see. The question we might ask ourselves is what it will
take for us to get to the point of saying yes. For some of us, it takes coming
up against something we can't ignore, escape, or deny, and so we are left no
choice but to say yes. For others, it just seems a natural progression of
events that leads us to making the decision to say yes.
The first step to saying yes is realizing that in the
end it is so much easier than the alternative. Once we understand this, we can
begin examining the moments when we resist what is happening, and experiment
with occasionally saying yes instead. It might be scary at first, and even
painful at times, but if we continue to say yes to every moment through the
process, we will discover the joy of being in a positive conversation
with a force much bigger than ourselves.
I agree, acceptance is very important. Of course, gotta accept yourself first.
ReplyDeleteThen, you can run but... can't really hide from "your people".