Acceptance

photo: "Great Autumn River" by Timm O'Cobhthaigh

According to his friend Ken, Timm's favorite passage from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous -- used by recovering alcoholics around the world as a kit of tools for spiritual transformation -- was the one on acceptance. It's from the personal story titled "Acceptance Was The Answer." (In previous editions it was "Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict"; Timm was more aggreived about the change of location than title; "Page 449," where the passage was originally found, became "Pages 416-17")

As a guideline and buoy and rudder for rough waters, the passage on acceptance surely provided great comfort to him and the others he reached out to in quoting it.

So on this one-month anniversary of Timm's death, I read the following along with him, in unison ...

* * *

And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.

Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God's world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.