Acceptance as our Guide

“Acceptance is the key to joy.”    Eckhart Tolle

Acceptance is anything but passive! It is a wise guide that realigns us with who we truly are. To accept does not mean we excuse harmful behaviour or surrender our strength. It means we stop resisting life as it unfolds. Resistance tightens us, shrinking our view into the smallness of “me against the world.”

When we accept what is — without judgment, without denial — we open to the quiet truth of our own consciousness, inseparable from the consciousness of all. From here, creativity flows. Love deepens. Connection and contentment arise naturally. We begin to see more clearly, and  make wiser choices.

Francis Weller, in The Wild Edge of Sorrow, reminds us that grief itself becomes a teacher when we approach it with acceptance. He introduces the “five gates of grief,” showing how each loss, whether personal or collective, opens us into deeper connection with the soul. In welcoming sorrow, we touch the sacred knowledge that binds us together, and in doing so, we discover wholeness.

Dominique Christina, in This Is Woman’s Work, offers another dimension of acceptance: embracing the many inner voices and archetypes that make up our being. For women especially, her invitation is to acknowledge the Rebel, the Warrior, the Shapeshifter—all the selves that patriarchy has often silenced. By honoring each aspect of our inner council, we align with a fuller expression of who we are. Christina’s insight underscores the importance of accepting both our inner & outer worlds.

In The Sacred Numbers of Initiation, Lars Muhl weaves numerology and mystical teachings of the Essenes into a guide for recognizing the soul’s inherent qualities. Acceptance here is about recognizing and embodying the spiritual potentials encoded within us. To know our number is to accept the gifts and challenges of our incarnation, and in doing so, to live more consciously.

Juliet Diaz, in The Altar Within, reminds us that true spirituality cannot bypass the realities of oppression and injustice. Acceptance allows us to connect with our true selves, acknowledge our inherited stories and engage with the world’s challenges with clarity and strength.

Sarah McCrum, in her book Wrestling with Freedom, asks: can we face corruption, cruelty, and despair without collapsing into cynicism? Her poetic essays reveal that to accept reality—even in its harshest forms—paradoxically allows us keep faith with the possibility of transformation.

Dying to Know by Ram Dass and Timothy Leary illustrates the profound importance of acceptance in our relationship with death. Through decades of dialogue, they explore consciousness beyond the body. To face death without denial is to live fully, awake to the mystery and beauty of existence.

Acceptance is not surrender to fate but surrender to truth. It is our human experience opening to the infinite presence that sustains our being. In this opening, acceptance teaches us to be here, now, as we are. And life flows—not as something to be conquered, but as a creative joyous unfolding.

*The books referred to in this writing are available in-store only at Berry. Please visit us or phone the store if you would like them to be posted to you.

Choose LOve

Patsy/Purnima Griffiths

Thanks to Jane Ewins for the  wisdom writing & editing with some help from Gemini .