Sunday, April 26, 2009

Acceptance Brings Contentment

I found a great article on acceptance when I was in New Orleans that I tore out of a newspaper and stuck in my purse. I am sharing some of it below if you are interested :)

The weekend has been busy and successful: 2 bike rides, make that 3 since Bek and I rode together today, shrimp mosca dinner with Bek and Jon, a great 4,000 yd swim, a new microchip for Cayenne, dog park time for the two puppies, new plants for the front flowerbed (Dave forced me to garden-shop with him), and paid bills. I am going to do my strength training here in minute, so that will get checked off of the list too. I make much headway in the job search department, so I will pursue that with gusto this week.

I also got robbed by 2 kids selling lemonade today. Bekah and I were riding around a very affluent neighborhood and we noticed a lemonade stand. When we had one loop left to go, we decided to check my bike bag to see if there was 50 cents somewhere in there. If not, we would go home, get some change, and buy some lemonade from the cute little girls. I found 50 cents, and we gave it to the girls and told them we would be back in a minute to take the lemonade with us. We literally finished the loop 5 minutes later and were heading back home - and lo and behold, no lemonade stand. We were totally ripped off. The kids pocketed our money and closed up for the day- and walked into their 500,000$ house. Seriously. They go to St Mary's, so that should have told us something. Bek and I are IC chicks. ha ha!!!!

Okay, the article:

When we calmly observe and investigate the causes of things and the fact that nothing happens by accident, the truth reveals itself. Cultivating patience and acceptance provides mental clarity and spaciousness that allows us to examine input before unthinkingly reacting in a way that may escalate the problem.

In taking a sacred pause, we dramatically increase the chances of making better choices and undertaking wiser actions. We simply have to remember to breathe once and relax, enjoying a moment of mindfulness and reflection before responding.

Sometimes we may not know what to do. That is a good time to do nothing. Too often, compulsive overdoing creates unnecessary complications. In humble listening to a higher power, the way to go forward comes. Lama Surya Das

Have a great week.

5 comments:

Jan said...

darn those lemonade steelers...arg!

Laura said...

I like it! Especially the advice that when we don't know what to do that probably means we should do nothing.

Hope you have a great week too Damie! XO's!!!!

runningyankee said...

"do nothing" is very under-rated! PS should have gone door to door till you found the scoundrals and demanded your lemonade!

Anonymous said...

I can't believe those little brats! Just goes to show that kids have no respect anymore(atleast some of them anyway). Great magazine clip!

Lee said...

Your dealing with a rough crowd here! We want to string the girls up by their heels from their $500,000
porch! :)

Thx for sharing the article. I needed that. The deep breathe before reacting is a great idea for me..

You rock Damie.