Acceptance: My Answer?

I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust, and the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God who has worked wonders for you... Joel 2:25 and 26a

So this is where I'm hanging out today over there on that chaise with my laptop. Wait. I don't have a laptop; I'm just pretending. ;) Trying to keep my lid on has become a fulltime pastime of late, which leads me to the rest of my story today.

A week ago, my friend brought me a sheet of paper with too many words on it. Definitely too many to read at the time as I was b-u-s-y. It was a decorative item that his sister had framed and placed on her wall. He asked her to please make a copy and that is how I now have it. I was so busy flying around last Sunday that I barely took the time to acknowledge the gift. (I know. I told you that I'd be relaxing in that big stuffed chair, but you know all about the land of make-believe. ETA: And that was two weeks ago...the golden library pic...where does the time go????) Since I was much too busy to bother reading it, I popped it into the recipe notebook I was using for Thanksgiving notes and recipes. See? There it is on the right.

You may vaguely remember that I had offered to host Thanksgiving. I offered to host Thanksgiving for everyone except my sister's beloved. I really didn't want him here. I don't like him much. It's not even that I don't like him; it's that I don't like what he represents to me...loss and a lot of change. Anyway, I was going through the week happy that he would not be attending. Then my sister said that if he was not welcome then she was not welcome and that they'd be going to McDonald's. Oh the drama of it all!

A few short minutes later, there I was face to face with the gift in my recipe notebook. It says:

Acceptance is the answer to all my problems.

When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation—some fact of life—unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God's World by mistake.

When I focus on what's good today, I have a good day, and when I focus on what's bad, I have a bad day. If I focus on a problem, the problem increases; if I focus on the answer, the answer increases. (The source for this material is, apparently, Alcoholics Anonymous.)

It was enough to get us all safely through Thanksgiving. I am not sure that it is enough to get us all safely through Christmas. I am still working on my one day at a time philosophy.

Now on to happier things... I had soooo much fun reading blogs yesterday. It resulted in my adding several more to my growing list in the sidebar. One was Little Red House where Mary hosts lovely tours of her charming home and writes about all manner of fun things. Check out her tribute to the movie "The Birds."

Then I visited Posie Gets Cozy where one can see the most lovely photos. This is the one that I want to share, but don't look until you finish reading here or you'll pop over there and you won't be back in a hurry. LOL! When you arrive there, you'll see a clump of Christmas lights. Just a clump. Anyway, that was the spark to begin my Christmas decorating. See?



Do you think that I can get away with my clump, too? I kinda like it. This could be the easiest decorating I've ever done!

Lastly, Vee (BumbleVee) at The Bearister Bookcase posted an incredibly compelling story about a late night visitor. You'll find it fascinating and food for thought.

Have a wonderful Sunday and a blessed week!

ETA: I'm confusing Melissa by not naming my picture source...oops! It's Pella.com