Today I wrote this in my journal: “accept radically, anything and everything that comes.”

Receive. Release.

It’s been a while since I’ve had to start over. I mean we all have our challenges and curve balls that hit us in daily life.  I get it.  But I have had a certain amount of stability for the past 9 years.  In fact Switzerland has been the second longest place I have lived in all of my life.  Challenges came and went, but there was a base-line of stability.  Some stuff to count on.

You know that trick people do where they place a glass of water on top of a table cloth on a table, and then yank the table cloth out really quickly? If it’s done right, there’s usually a little wobble, and then the cup rights itself and all is well.  But in the seconds before, during, and immediately after, you are left wondering if everything’s about to shatter and spill.  I think I’m there.

In every direction, everything is new and therefore precarious. I examine my situation for certainty and I have so little to grip on to.  A lot of hope, for sure.  But certainty? Definitely not. In the mornings when I pray and meditate, seeking guidance, I sense doors everywhere.  But which one is open? which one to walk through? Am I seeing them all? All the options and opportunities?

So I come to this: radical acceptance.  I ask to be open to receive all that is, in any and every direction that it might come in.  I ask to take it in and to find the courage to step forward, even when there is no certainty. I ask for strength to take the next step on the blind curve and trust that I will be directed, or redirected, when needed.  And I accept that nothing is certain right now.  In a positive light this means that all is also possible.  It means that anything can happen.  Amazing things too.  So I accept being uncomfortable. I accept not knowing.  (I have to reaffirm this acceptance daily, and sometimes dozens of times in a single day!) But this is where I am certain – that I cannot receive if I am not open to all that is.

I am open.  Receive. Release.  Accept.