Postscript to Day Thirty-Six: acceptance

I had a feeling that i hadn't quite finished my blog entry. I turned the page in my book to start the next word only to discover that there were indeed more words on acceptance...

I knew there were another couple of quotes that i had read and found helpful. Here they are:

apathy doesn't distinguish between what can and what cannot be helped, acceptance makes that distinction. Apathy paralyses the desire to take action; acceptance frees it by relieving it of impossible burden. [Arthur Gordon]

If i could define enlightenment briefly i would say it is the quiet acceptance of what is. [Wayne Dyer]

So am i any closer to understanding acceptance? It is taking on the mantle, agreeing to a task, belief in something, the state of being accepted or acceptable, receiving something offered, especially with gladness or approval. But acceptance can also mean being resigned to, and the notion of being acceptable has come to imply that something is okay but not great. For example, secondhand books sold on Amazon use the phrase to mean that the book is readable, worth a few pennies but not good, certainly not like new! But this is certainly not what the word meant originally. Its roots are from the Latin acceptare, frequentative of accipere to receive (ad-, ad-+capere, to take). There are 24 occurrences in the Bible, including acceptance with God - an act of pure grace in Romans 4:16. And there are 48 occurrences of acceptable in the Bible, including: acceptable in Your sight meaning pleasing in Your eyes in Psalm 19. It is clear that we have lost much of the richness of the word. Perhaps we can rediscover acceptance as a positive concept, to be sought out rather than shunned...