A New Twist on Acceptance

[]

Yesterday I drove about 1 ½ hours to pick up my son from a music festival east of Austin. It was being held in a forest near a small town. My map took me on a route I had not been on before, and for most of the drive I was on a 2 lane road. It was rainy and windy and the skies were oh so dark even though it was mid afternoon.

It was one of those times for driving safely, as I felt my car hydroplaning a few times on the road. I ended up behind a pretty large commercial truck that was going 35 mph, even though the speed limit was 60. Now I didn’t want to go 60 due to the weather but I would have preferred to go faster than 35. I didn’t know if my son was safe or not as he was outdoors in the weather. I didn’t know if there was lots of lightening where he was. His phone battery was fading and I wanted to get there before it died.

But alas, I was behind this truck. It made no sense to me why this truck would go so slowly. He was up higher off the ground which seemed safer to me. Cars were lined up behind me as we all were “stuck” behind this guy. With each upcoming turn down a new farm to market road I was in hopes he would go straight and I could turn and be set free. LOL. But each time he turned as well.

Soon into this, I knew this was a lesson for me. It just had that feeling, and since I believe there are no accidents and that everything is for a reason, I decided to start letting go and surrendering. I thought that I was doing quite well, but as this went on longer and longer, I started getting ancy. So more surrender, more relaxing into the present moment.

It felt like so much time had gone by, and I was ever ready to go a little bit faster. And yet I knew to trust, knew to relax, knew to just be with what was.

So then we took one more turn and he was still in front of me! My peace started to fade. I knew I hadn’t mastered the lesson yet because of how I was feeling….irritated and uptight. Under different circumstances I think I would have done better with this, but because my son’s phone had now died and I couldn’t communicate with him as to why I was so delayed I knew I was too attached.

Then I remembered something Tolle has said.

“Accept — then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.This will miraculously transform your whole life.”

So in that moment I felt a sudden flash of joy as I threw open my heart and said out loud: I accept the speed that this truck is going. I accept the speed as if I had chosen it myself.

Something shifted! I actually got into the feeling as if I had chosen this and I moved into full acceptance from this vantage point.

Guess what happened?

Now before I tell you, let me be clear, I didn’t do this thinking anything was going to change outwardly….I just knew I wanted relief inwardly.

Well the relief came but also something unexpected. Within about 10 seconds of my act of acceptance, it was as if the truck driver floored the gas pedal. He went so fast in fact that within about a minute he was completely out of sight and I never saw him again!

Wahoo, I was laughing out loud! Boy did the Universe have my attention!

I realize that this truck is a lot like anything we think is in our way or holding us back. There we are feeling stuck and maybe frustrated. Something in our life isn’t going the way we want to or someone isn’t acting how we would like them to. Situations have us feeling trapped, afraid and anxious. Or we feel hurt by a situation or person.

We can’t see beyond this “big honking truck” that is blocking our view and we feel powerless in knowing what to do next.

It’s this resistance to what is that is holding us back. It’s all the shoulds and coulds and what ifs………we feel out of control and we don’t like it so we turn to fear, anger or blame.

Resistance causes our suffering.

But Tolle has shown us a way to be powerful. Accept the present moment as if you had chosen it.

For me, this takes acceptance one step further and helps me to gain clarity. The truck might not always move like it did for me or as quickly, but you will be standing in a place of greater abundance and peace so that wisdom can come. Or joy. Or love. Or faith.

We are never alone. And we are always supported by a Benevolent Universe, a Loving Divine Presence.

I would love to hear any experiences you have with this, so feel free to leave a comment!!

Love and gratitude,

julie