There’s a difference between acceptance and resignation. Acceptance leads to peace. Resignation to bitterness. How can I tell the difference?
Resignation is gritting my teeth, balling my fists, and shoving them in my pockets. It’s boding my time until the thing changes, until the people move away, or until I just give up. Resignation says Screw it. What’s the use anyhow? Why does this always happen to me?
Resignation taps me on my shoulder at 2 a.m. and says: Wake up, hun. We gotta talk. When I resign myself to some person, place or thing, some condition of my life, I become depressed. Depression is anger turned inward.
The difference between acceptance and resignation is the vast distance between forgive and forget, between forgive but always remember what the hell they did to you.
I can’t accept something that I won’t truly let go of, but I can resign myself to it. Resignation begins with unfulfilled expectation and disappointment, and ends in resentment and bitterness. To resign myself to something is to bind myself to it. It follows me around like my shadow. It is my shadow.
To accept, on the other hand, is to release. It’s not to hold off and hold on ’til better times come. It’s to let go of my nonnegotiables right now. It’s not to keep at arm’s length, but to embrace. It’s not to lock my door against, but to invite in, to discover what my problems have to teach me, to whisper gently to me in my darkest moments. It’s to allow whatever is to move through me like the wind slips through the branches of a winter tree. It offers no resistance. It’s getting out of my own damned way, and not taking anything all that seriously.
When I do this, my burdens cease being burdens. I carry them differently. It’s only then that I can know that everything which happens, happens for a reason. And that in the end all reasons work in my favor. It’s to realize that if something hasn’t worked out, it’s only because it hasn’t worked out yet. If I realize that a lot of what happens around me isn’t happening to me, and that most of it isn’t really any of my business anyway, I’ll be a lot happier. Or at least at peace.
If I give my problems enough time, they’ll usually work themselves out. The wind always stops blowing.
© 2022 by Michael C. Just
Mike’s novel, The Dirt: The Journey of a Mystic Cowboy, is available in softcover or eBook formats through Amazon.
You can purchase the book through this website. Or go straight to amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+dirt+journey+of+a+mystic+cowboy&crid=1S40Q4BXSUWJ6&sprefix=the+dirt%3A+journey+of+a+m%2Caps%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_23
Mike’s other titles, including The Crippy, The Mind Altar, and Canyon Calls, are available through this website or through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002
Four of his short stories have recently been published online:
Lies, Ltd. has been published by The Mystery Tribune @ Lies, Ltd.: Literary Short Fiction by Michael C. Just (mysterytribune.com)
The Obligate Carnivore has been published by the Scarlet Leaf Review @ Category: MICHAEL JUST – SCARLET LEAF REVIEW
I See You, Too has been published by the 96th of October @ I See You, Too – 96th of October
Offload, a short story about a man who can heal any disease, is now live and can be read at The Worlds Within at Offload – The Worlds Within