A sense of serenity is born of acceptance

I had to read that a couple of times for it to make sense to me. Then it started to come clear. If we are in an eternal struggle with everything around us, there will never be serenity. Serenity is of our own making, at least the serenity that we long for and desire, it has to come from within ourselves. My serenity may not be your serenity.

But we have to be open to the serenity we are looking for, we have to accept what is going on in our lives and come to terms with it. We have to accept that everyone of us has limitations and we are only allowed so much in this life. Yes, we all want the million dollar homes and fancy cars, but not all of us are going to have that. I'm not saying you can't get it, it is very important to always work toward improving what you have and looking forward to having more in your life, but be careful or you will miss some of the wonders of the journey of your life.

Today at breakfast I was talking with my boyfriend about what we have. And I asked him, what more could we really want or need, what is missing from our life? Other than our families living too far away - which is something we have to be accepting of because that is a decision out of our control - neither he nor I could think of anything that we are truly doing without.

I have found in my quest for self-empowerment I am truly more accepting of what I do have, a nice roof over my head, a car, a man who loves me, a good job and a super cool dog. I have food to eat and coolness in this crazy Vegas heat. And instead of saying I want more, I am accepting of what I have and I am happy. I have a good quality of serenity in my life. Before my journey began I wasn't satisfied with what I had, I thought I should have, if not more, different. That caused anxiety in my life. I didn't live in the right place - to someone else's standards, my car isn't brand new - again I was looking at what I had by someone else's eyes. No one specifically, just societies eyes.

In my days of self realization I have come to realize I really do have it all and I have it all the way I want it. The only one I have to truly please on this journey called life is myself. If I set myself up to others standards I will be lacking, because their standards aren't mine. I must accept who I am and what I have, and now because I have accepted it, I am so much more happy and serenity is a wonderful benefit of it all.

I have come to the point in my life, and I'm not stopping here, of learning that who I am and what I have is good and right for me. I have been truly blessed in so many ways and I thank all the Powers that Be for setting me on this path of self-discovery. I welcome the challenges yet to come and I have already seen benefits of my journey so far. I am excited to see what lies ahead.