i-TFTD #234: Ultimate Advice

#234-1. All the stress that we feel is caused by arguing with what is.
-Byron Katie, American speaker and self-help author (1942-)

#234-2. You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it.
-German saying

#234-3. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
-J. R. R. Tolkien, English fantasy writer, poet, philologist, author of The Lord of the Rings (1892-1973)

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Spiritual teachers often advise acceptance. Paradoxically, it enables deep change. On the level of daily affairs, this could remind us to distinguish between facts outside our immediate control and aspects that can be influenced by us. A married person encounters examples of this when dealing with the personality traits of the spouse, which are less changeable than outward behavior.

Acceptance should not be confused with passivity or apathy. Living involves taking action, which includes forming opinions, deciding and influencing the outer world.

One can endlessly debate the above or avoid spending think time on such matters in the abstract but either way one is making a choice.