Self-acceptance: Finding the Diamonds

“People behave rationally only part of the time; the rest of the time we take stupid risks and do other things we can’t explain,” Elizabeth Sims wrote in an article published in the March/April 2012 issue of Writer’s Digest. The intent of the article was to advise writers in how to make their stories better and this key had to do with “embracing idiosyncrasies” in the characters we have created. By not only accepting but celebrating the fact that our characters aren’t perfect, we allow them to be real enough to become effective in communicating the messages we are hoping our writing will achieve.

What’s true for fiction is also true in our everyday spirituality. Some of us are still trying to put out the persona that we never fail, that we are always happy, that we have life figured out and all is good all the time. Of course this is ridiculous and trying to maintain the front is wearing us out. How much better for all of us if we can accept that sometimes we take stupid risks and do irrational things we can’t explain. Where grace comes in (in real life) is that we can know at the same time that we are loved by the Divinity that lives in us and we always have another chance to try again – and in trying again, we remove a little more of the dross from the diamonds we are in spirit.