Acceptance

This quote hangs in my cubicle:
"Acceptance does not necessarily mean 'liking', 'enjoying' or 'condoning'. I can accept what is-and be determined to evolve from there. It's not acceptance but denial that leaves me stuck." Nathaniel Branden

I have had a long standing love affair with the concept of acceptance for a while now. Acceptance of all situations whether challenging or joyful allows me to be grateful for the lessons the universe has to teach me. It keeps me out of self-pity and frees me to move forward.

Recently, I had a strong feeling come over me about my financial world or lack thereof. Basically, something inside of me told me that due to my creative interests and other commitments, I will likely be poor forever so I just find my peace with it. For whatever reason, this kind of sent me into a panic or some sort of spiritual temper tantrum. I had my little freakout and wondered what the heck I am doing wrong or why the universe does not trust me with extra money. After talking at length about this with my father I did find some peace with it. The fact of the matter is that I like my life the way it is. I feel that I live it fully and do not wish to give up the amount of energy that I devote to music, other creative projects and whatever kind of volunteer work that I may get involved in. There is no way that I believe I would be happier if I dropped it all, went back to school and scrounged my way to the top on some more lucrative pathway. Actually, I find that I am somewhat uncomfortable with the very wealthy anyway. That may be a bit of an interesting tidbit to examine but I don't feel like looking into it now. So I accepted my meager means and tried to find peace with a simple life. The only concern that really came into play is the idea of having a family or one day being able to own a home. There has always been something in the back of my mind that figured those types of situations would work themselves out but as I get older, I feel that I need to plan a bit better.
A beautiful aspect of all this thinking perhaps finds it origin in the current happiness I have in my relationship. Being so happy with someone I love has inspired me to look to the future a bit. Mostly because I want to pave the way for more beauty to come of what I have found. The mere fact that someone has caused me to want to look ahead is pretty cool in itself. Tommy echoed my sentiment and mentioned our relationship has done the same thing in his mind. That was nice to hear.

So anyway, I worked on my acceptance and I calmed down and all that junk. Ironically, and boy do I love it when the universe does this, so much extra work has fallen in my lap since then it is quite incredible. I've book three VO jobs this month and have been helping Tommy on the weekend doing chef gigs and what not. I was getting a little exhausted but it sure is nice to have some wiggle room financially. I'm determined not to go overboard with my spending so that I can stay a little ahead here. As much as I hate to admit it though, having some extra money sure does relieve stress and opens up so much opportunity to do the things I enjoy doing.

Economists are saying that there are indications that the recession is ending and although I know that that won't necessarily make it's mark on folks like me for some time, it is nice to know that things are looking up.

In other news, I've had a lot of fun learning about interesting folks in the world like Julia Childs or following Obama's health care reform plans. It kind of blows my mind that his approval rating is at an all time low. Personally, I am so happy with his time so far and have found myself more patriotic than ever knowing he is leading and representing us. What a tough job he has. So much better him than me!

It's slow today at work and I have to get over to Van Nuys as soon as I am cut loose to do some VO for the Dr. Tran guys. Should be fun as usual. Then tomorrow there are plans for a bike ride and maybe some swimming---my new infatuation.

The sun is shining inside and out. :)