From Acceptance to Empowerment

This week I’d like to share a story about the power of Surrender and Acceptance. Depending on your preference, you can keep reading below or click here for the video version on YouTube. Due to your feedback from last week, I am trying both this week. 

I know these can be challenging concepts to embrace. Surrender is often associated with giving up or being defeated. But I think of it as simply acknowledging and accepting what is happening in the moment. Once I stop resisting and wishing something wasn’t happening, I can use that energy to empower myself to do whatever needs to be done to move forward.

I had the chance to "practice what I preach" this month when the manager of my apartment complex sent out a notice letting us know that some of the buildings would be tented and fumigated for termites. Lucky me. Mine was one of them.

This meant everyone in the building had to vacate the premises by Thursday morning and find a place to stay until we received the “all clear” to return at some point on Saturday. We also had to remove all food, medicine, and vitamins (basically anything ingestible) as well as any houseplants.

It was inconvenient, but not the end of the world. I could have chosen to be mad about it and wish it wasn’t my building. But that wouldn’t change anything. Nor would it be helpful. Instead, from a place of acceptance and peace, I started thinking about where I could stay for a few days without being too much of a bother.  

I immediately thought of my dear friend Carrie in Tampa. She and her husband let me stay in their lovely guest room for ten days when I moved back to Florida a few years ago. They are like family and I knew we would have a good time, so I called Carrie to let her know my situation. She told me to come on up for as long as I needed, and then she started planning some adventures.

Coincidentally, her father’s birthday was that weekend so they invited me to join them for dinner on Thursday evening. Her parents have been extremely kind and welcoming to me since the day we met, so I was thrilled to be part of his celebration. Her dad requested authentic Chinese food so Carrie found a restaurant in Tampa that had received rave reviews. I’ll just say there were some very interesting items on the menu. It was an experience none of us will forget!

On Friday, I had the honor of being a guest on Carrie’s weekly Instagram Live, which she offers to the subscribers in her Lighthouse Community. We always have so much fun working together and our teaching styles are very complimentary. Later that evening, we met up with some of her longtime tennis friends that I had heard about for years but never met. What a treat to meet this beautiful couple and share pizza! I love asking couples how they met and their story was an interesting one, for sure! 

We made plans to meet one of my sisters and her husband for lunch on Saturday. Every January, they escape the cold winters in upstate New York (where I’m from) and rent a condo here on the west coast of Florida for the month. It always makes my heart happy to see my sister, but this visit was especially joyful.  

For the past few years, my sister has suggested we visit the Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach, but we just haven’t been able to coordinate our schedules to make it happen. Well, this year it happened. My smart sister suggested we have lunch in Apollo Beach and see the manatees afterward. I’m so glad we did it this year because it was a breathtaking experience! 

I’ve seen one or two manatees swimming in canals in Miami and recently here in Sarasota Bay, but I have never seen that many manatees in one place! There were hundreds of them! During the cold winter months, manatees gather near power plants where warm water exits the facility. I would too if I were a manatee! This particular power plant in Apollo Beach attracts as many visitors as it does manatees.

To accommodate the large crowds, they built a long observation deck along the river where you can look down into the water and see these gentle, graceful animals. I loved watching their little nostrils open and close as they came up for air. It made my heart happy to see so many of them, but also a little sad. Most of the manatees had scars or pieces of their tales missing due to careless boaters not observing the speed limits in manatee zones. I wish every Florida boater could visit this magical manatee gathering place to see how important it is to slow down. 

In addition to manatees, the warm water attracts an abundance of sting rays. The spotted rays were especially beautiful. On that day, we observed at least a dozen rays hurling themselves completely out of the water and re-entering with a loud splash. It was quite a show! Were those rays doing bellyflops? I know from experience that belly flops sting, but do they sting rays? If you guessed I made that bad pun a few times during our visit, you’d be correct!

Carrie and her husband enjoy the world of Star Wars as much as I do. Over the course of the weekend, we binged all 8 episodes of the new Disney+ series, The Skeleton Crew. What a treat to watch it together and have Carrie’s dog, Sassy, snuggled up next to me on the couch. By the way, if you’re a Star Wars fan, we all gave two thumbs up to this new series following a group of kids having an unexpected off-planet adventure!

It was a blessing to have so much quality time and so many joyful moments with my dear friends and family. Yes, it did require extra time and energy to prepare my apartment and pack up and unload all that stuff in my car. But had I not been forced to leave, I would have missed that wonderful weekend in Tampa.

Granted, events on the world stage and perhaps in your life are more difficult to accept than being kicked out of your home for a few days. So many families have been permanently displaced from their homes due to the recent fires, hurricanes, and wars around the globe. 

Yet even during the most challenging of times, I still believe that acceptance leads to empowerment. It may take a while, but when we stop resisting or denying what is happening, we can look directly at our options and then decide which is the best course of action. When we get grounded and centered, it will be much easier to receive guidance on how to proceed. I don't know about you, but I rarely make good decisions from a fearful, angry, or resentful place.

If there is a situation in your life that is difficult to accept, it would be my great honor to assist you in getting to a place of acceptance and peace with a series of Spiritual Coaching Sessions. During our one-hour sessions, you will gain new perspectives to reframe how you are seeing your situation and tools to help you move through it. Please look around my website for more information and to book a session. I look forward to working with you!

Until next time, may you experience the peaceful acceptance that leads to empowerment! 

When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.

~ Byron Katie - Author of Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change your Life