One of the most powerful of principles is that of acceptance. Acceptance creates possibility in your life. For me acceptance is the key to recovery and transformation. It is that from which we experience of sense of serenity and peace, and with it our power as human beings. Without acceptance we are at the mercy of life happening.
Below is one of the most powerful passages that exists. The passage on acceptance comes from the Big Book, page 449 in the third edition and 417 in the fourth edition.
“And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation – some fact of my life - unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God’s world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober, unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.”
