We talk about “accepting” things in our life: death, changes, loss, lessons.  But one of the meanings of “acceptance” is to receive a gift.  I’m sure I’ve spoken about this before, and will again.

I am slammed and blessed into acceptance.  It is most often in retrospect that I see the gift.  “What a delightful present to be partnered for so long in such a harsh relationship!  It is just what I wanted! (????)  How did you know?!”  It was certainly exactly what I needed to see that I had choices and could choose, that I had preferences and opinions and desires for my kind of happiness.

Today I feel more of a chance to see beneath any cloud or doubt for the gift–the Presence.  Like any coin, being human means that the ache is intimately connected with the grace.  The pain is the point of healing and the struggle is the path to peace.

I walk today along a gravel dirt path along a swamp, sluggish, brown, littered with water-soaked trees.  It is filled with pairs of ducks, turtles and tiny creatures rustling the twisted bushes.  Even the so-called dead things in my life are filled with treasures that I hold close to my heart.

What a wonderful gift today–life.