Hail, Hard Hats and Acceptance

This morning my Bunnyhunny called me from his work location in Northern Cal to tell me that he was being hailed upon.  When I asked him if the hail had knocked him on his noggin (in West Texas where I grew up our hail is usually really BIG). He laughed and said, "No.  I'm wearing my hard hat. But the hail is all piled up on top of my windshield wipers." I heard him turn on his wipers to move the hail away so he could see where he was going.

Our short conversation about the hail made me think about how often we allow ourselves to be waylaid by the stuff that comes up in life.  But the truth is that we always have our very own invisible hard hat.  It is called acceptance.  By acceptance I do NOT mean abject doormat-style surrender, though we sometimes must surrender things we can't do anything about.  

What I mean by acceptance is that in any given situation we will be much more flexible and able to respond if we have accepted the situation just as it is in the moment.  Refusing to see things as they really are does not make them change any faster.  But when you accept what is, you immediately open yourself to all the possibilities.  

When it hails we don't stand there being pelted and say, "I refuse to accept that it is hailing."  We think, Ouch, it's hailing.  We evaluate the possible solutions and we pop up our umbrella, step into the nearest doorway or race to our car.  

Even in the worst situations, when we accept what is we have more choices in how we are going to respond. Acceptance leads to solutions.