Tag Archives: Acceptance

* The best present makes the best future.

August 18, 2016Homelessness, Justice, OUR BEST POSTS, The Way of PeaceAcceptance, Choosing feelings, Choosing thoughts, Christianity, Forgiveness, Presence, Race, Racism, SublimationWilliam Tell

I’m posting very little new material these days, but there are hundreds of posts different folks may not have seen the first time around. So I’ve had in mind possibly to start “recycling” old posts.

I happened across this one today. Actually, its story has been on my mind given recent difficulties getting into the shelter. And when I re-read it today, I was moved, not just by the story about Leo, but the remark about dwelling in untoward feelings. I see so many people around me, and so many expressions in the media, of folk dwelling in grievance, anger, the feeling of injustice, of being disadvantaged, of harboring resentment especially against those of different skin color.

And even within Christianity, I find sometimes such negativity being encouraged, in the name of justice; wholly forgetting the Gospel mandate to forgive, forgive, forgive.

The below post first appeared 2015-12-12.

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Saturday 2015-12-05

14:40. Actually, Leo arrived first.

But he got turned away.

Continue reading * The best present makes the best future. →

* Self-management: A snippet

July 1, 2016The Way of PeaceAcceptance, Choosing feelings, Choosing thoughts, Here - Now - Can, Race, Racism, Resentment, Take things in strideWilliam Tell

It’s happened often enough lately that I may as well tell it.

When I go into the shower room at the shelter, often enough, unhappiness meets me.

The shower stall I prefer isn’t available, and I resent it.

This guy is taking up half the shower bench, and the other half is full also, and I resent it.

This other guy is taking up all kinds of too much time getting dressed, and I resent it.

As soon as I turn my attention to what I will actually do — where to put my clothes, choosing a stall that is available, and getting undressed in itself — all those bad feelings vanish.

Complaining means you’re not doing what you can.

Related: Here – Now – Can

Reblogged 12/21/23.

* In the forecast: Pain

January 16, 2016Homelessness, The Way of PeaceAcceptance, Auras, Chakras, Choosing feelings, Self-comfort, Solar plexus, Toothaches, Victim mentalityWilliam Tell

(Reblogged 2023-02-23.)

A toothache can distract you completely.

For the past two months, I have now and then, with increasing frequency and duration, had mild toothaches in (I thought) one upper left tooth and one lower left tooth. They always went away; and that’s all I thought of it.

Then last Thursday night there was such severe pain for such a long time, that I lost several hours’ sleep and resolved to get those two teeth filled the next day. But that didn’t happen. The dentist said four teeth must be extracted; and the appointments the clinic scheduled for me are two weeks and four weeks away.

This means: for the coming month, I am going to be in pain of varying severity for varying lengths of time.

It may not be much, now and then; it may be a lot, now and then, and for quite a while now and then. But it’s unavoidable. It’s coming.

How will I choose to feel about it?

Will I accept it, or react continually against it?

Will I hate myself for being in pain? or possibly hate others? Hate God?

Will I be crying out, “Why me?”

Or may there be other options?

Related: A short route to agony

From my diary:

Continue reading * In the forecast: Pain →

* This program turned me away.

December 19, 2015Bible, Career goals, Get on your feet, Homelessness, Job search/Job prospects, Justice, National news, OUR BEST POSTSAcceptance, Baptism, Baptismal theology, Campus protests, Grace, Mark 4:3-20, Parable of the SowerWilliam Tell

Adapted from a 12/03/15 e-mail to my brothers and some others.

Given instability at the shelter where I’ve been for almost five years, I decided to apply to a certain program affiliated with a major national charity and major local soup kitchen. This program is residential, has a nice facility, and (as I understood it) was geared toward taking men with histories of addiction or homelessness and rendering them self-supporting.

Since it is a residential program, I would no longer have to carry my bags everywhere I go, vastly increasing the radius within which I can look for work; and, I supposed, I would be able to work any shift. After all, unlike the shelter where I’ve been, they’ve got a big shove towards self-sufficiency.

They rejected me.

I wrote:

Baptismal grace means: when you get knocked down, you get back up.

Blog post (from October ’14, about getting back up): Life in the outer darkness

In the immediate future, I will be checking out options in transitional housing, and case management services at the clinic where I’m currently in treatment for everything I’m in treatment for.

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What happened?

Continue reading * This program turned me away. →

* The best present makes the best future.

December 12, 2015Homelessness, Justice, OUR BEST POSTS, The Way of PeaceAcceptance, Choosing feelings, Choosing thoughts, Presence, SublimationWilliam Tell

Saturday 2015-12-05

14:40. Actually, Leo arrived first.

But he got turned away.

Continue reading * The best present makes the best future. →

* The Real Reason Why You Haven’t Healed Your Trauma/Depression/Heartbreak

October 24, 2015Bible, The Way of PeaceAcceptance, Cosmology, Embracing what is, Emmet Fox, Garden of Eden, Good and evil, Healing, Natasha Che, Presence, Scott Morrison, The Fall, What Is, Your Heart's DesireWilliam Tell

At first I expected this author to affirm the “blame-your-past” orientation of “the prevailing psychological wisdom of our time.” Instead, she sets forth an intriguing vision remarkably similar to my own, with, for me, remarkably intriguing ramifications that I want to consider further.

Her counsel is to accept What Is.

Continue reading * The Real Reason Why You Haven’t Healed Your Trauma/Depression/Heartbreak →

* Balto. police commissioner fired

July 9, 2015Clippings, Local newsAcceptance, Baltimore riots, Serenity prayerWilliam Tell

Baltimore Mayor Rawlings-Blake fires Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts

I don’t like this. But I am best to “accept the things I cannot change.”

I have supported both Commissioner Batts and the mayor in everything they’ve done so far. An possible exception: in hindsight, it may have been unwise to shut down the subway Monday afternoon, April 26, as this rendered high school students at Mondawmin Mall unable to leave the area.

I have not studied the various calls for Batts’ resignation, but note that they come from many different directions. That doesn’t, in itself, give any of them merit.

The F.O.P. does not currently appear to me to be a friend of the people.

Reblogged 2021-11-25.

* Hell has an exit.

March 14, 2015Bible, HomelessnessAcceptance, Atheists, Awe, Choosing feelings, Choosing thoughts, Embracing what is, Here - Now - Can, Jeffrey Tayler, Jurgen Moltmann, Presence, Psalm 8, Serenity prayer, What IsWilliam Tell

“Embracing what is,” a four-part series:
• As seen on TV: The new, improved hubris
• Belief: The unforgivable sin
• Rationalism cannot save us.
• Hell has an exit.

———— ♦ ————

Connect the dots however you like. Can you connect them all?

The Serenity Prayer does not depend on belief in God, but rather expresses basic principles of life:

God, grant me
the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

This pertains to where one directs one’s attention, how one chooses to feel, and where one focuses one’s desires. These are acts not of the mind, but of the will.

Jeffrey Tayler says, “Given the possibility that terrorists may acquire weapons of mass destruction and nuclear states with faith-based conflicts may let fly their missiles, religion may be said to endanger humanity as a whole. No one who cares about our future can quietly abide the continuing propagation and influence of apocalyptic fables that large numbers of people take seriously and not raise a loud, persistent, even strident cry of alarm.”[15]

Fact: those who direct Iran’s nuclear program aren’t likely to listen to an atheist American Islamophobe.

Continue reading * Hell has an exit. →

* Victory is mine

February 14, 2015Audition files, Get on your feet, Justice, OUR BEST POSTS, The Way of PeaceAcceptance, Autonomy, Choosing feelings, Choosing thoughts, Here - Now - Can, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

In a blog post of July 19, 2014, I declared my ambition to become the “Nemesis of the morning glories” in the garden out behind my church. My plan was to spend four hours per week specifically weeding the morning glories in that garden.

On Monday, October 20, 2014, I wrote, “The morning glories are vanquished. As of today, they are under control throughout the entire garden.”

Continue reading * Victory is mine →

* A place to begin

December 27, 2014Bible, Get on your feet, Homelessness, OUR BEST POSTS, PovertyAcceptance, Dan Rodricks, Dual diagnosis, Jesus, John 9:1-3, Panhandling, Presence, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

John 9:1-3:

¹As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”

The disciples want to place blame. Their posture can be referred to as fault-finding, judgment and condemnation. Jesus calls attention to the opportunity to heal, to do good, to make a beginning.

Continue reading * A place to begin →