ACCEPTANCE

I am a less than perfect being but I am, little by little, becoming content with who I am. I have no desire to strive for perfection, just because that would be too difficult and I am not interested, any more, in doing anything that is too difficult. Almost every day I do something that reminds me just how imperfect I am by saying the wrong thing to someone—something hurtful—or by acting in a less than kind way towards someone. Even though my over-riding goal is to be a good person, I continually fall short. Sometimes I feel bad about my shortcomings and other times I can accept myself "warts and all".

The older I get, it seems the less I have to prove. My rules to live by are ridiculously simple: I want to do the right thing. The adventure comes in deciding what is right. "If it doesn’t harm another living thing," is a criterion I hear sometimes which seems to make sense. I’ve made over a million mistakes in this lifetime alone, and I’ve also made the decision to forgive myself for all of them. I no longer want to carry around the weight of the guilt and the shame associated with mistakes. The hell with all of that! Life is far too precious to be wasting time with that kind of useless baggage.

I’ve got plenty of living to do—miles to go before I sleep. I want to have an easy time walking the trail and I’ve found that the best way to do that is to be accepting of myself and of the others I meet along the way. If someone decides to walk along beside me for awhile, that’s fine, I can accept that. And then, if they head off in another direction after awhile, that’s also fine. Often the greatest challenge is accepting bad behavior from someone else. But until I’m a perfect being myself, it’s my job to understand their shortcomings as well as my own. I just have to remember, we’re all bozos on this bus!