A blog by Dr. Harry Henshaw
Posts tagged acceptance
The Process of Saying Goodbye through Acceptance.
Aug 26th
It has been eight weeks now since my mother has passed. While I think of her every day that goes by, the process of saying goodbye is just that, a process. I am coming to accept, slowly as it may be, that she is gone and that I will never speak to or be with her ever again. While in many ways I do not believe that I have fully come to terms with what has happened, I am finding comfort in a concept that I was introduced to to in recovery, that of acceptance. My work is to stand in the space of acceptance.
While the process of saying goodbye is still painful it is assisted by accepting that what happened did happen in the way that it was supposed to happen. It was perfect, perfect cause it happened in God’s world. My work, as difficult as it may be at times, is about coming to terms with what happened, of learning to accept it fully, not make anything wrong about the process and knowing that it happened as it was intended to happen. Acceptance is about accepting that my mother passed in the way that she did and that it could not have been any other way.
Everyday is about saying goodbye to my mother, being gratitude that she brought me into the world, that she was there for me in so many ways and that she loved me without condition.
Creating Life from the Possibility of Acceptance.
Jul 25th
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.”
Acceptance is the key to transformation
May 21st
Acceptance is the answer to all of our problems. Our power comes from accepting people, places and things as they are, not as we would like them to be. The struggle of life is the result of trying to make things, people and places out to be the way that we think they should or ought to be. When we give up the desire to make things and people as we want to them to be we restore our power, we put ourselves in alignment with reality Our power comes from accepting reality as reality is, not how we want it to be. We have no control over others, only ourselves. We can practice acceptance, as that is in our control. Accepting people, places and things as they are and as they are not. To accept is to transform our life.