Sunday, January 3, 2016

The Year of Acceptance

I have been thinking a lot about what I would do with this little corner of the internet. I found this post from January of 2016 today, and I really liked it. The year of acceptance turned into one year of acceptance, and one year of radical self-acceptance. I'm looking forward to what 2018 has in store for me, and for this little blog...

The holidays are over and I am both relieved and a little sad.  I love the holidays and we have enjoyed this Christmas but I am relieved to be on the other side of the spending mania and media bombardment of what the holidays are supposed to look like.

Now that they are over and I am in their wake, I am reflecting on where I want to go this year, what I am supposed to focus on.  The idea of acceptance has been surfacing again and again since I ran my first marathon in November.  I have prayed about it, journaled about it, talked to mentors and friends about it and I am convinced that 2016 is the year of acceptance.  Acceptance, along with forgiveness, is the last stage of the grief process.  It is a powerful stage full of freedom.  This year I will move toward acceptance in many aspects of my life and I am fully looking forward to the journey.

I got my daughter a Ripstick for Christmas.  This is like a skateboard with 2 wheels instead of 4.  It is deceptively difficult to get the hang of it, but I decided to give it a try.

Part of learning something new, of acquiring a new skill, moving into a new emotional space, growing is accepting where you are in the process.  I lost count of how many times I have fallen down but I tried to stay patient with myself, accept myself for where I was and keep trying.



And I've picked it up.  Maybe not as well as my 8 year old but not too bad for an "old" lady.  It's fun: to learn something new, to prove that I can still learn new things, hard things, physical things.

That's a good start to this year.