Just the other day a friend told me about an argument he had with a good friend. He was distraught about it and didn’t know what to do. Unfortunately, his friend didn’t want to talk about it with him - and didn’t want to talk to him - which only furthered his upset.

The only advice I could come up with had to do with the concept of acceptance: there are certain situations in life that can leave us feeling horribly in limbo. Sometimes all we can do is accept that awkward space. And let it be.

We rely upon the poets, the philosophers, and the playwrights to articulate what most of us can only feel, in joy and sorrow. They illuminate the thoughts for which we only grope; they give us the strength and balm we cannot find in ourselves. Whenever I feel my courage wavering I rush to them. They will give me the wisdom of acceptance, the will and resilience to push on.

- Helen Hayes

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.

- Carl Rogers

Conversion for me was not a Damascus Road experience. I slowly moved into an intellectual acceptance of what my intuition had always known.

- Madeleine L’Engle

The mind can assert anything and pretend it has proved it. My beliefs I test on my body, on my intuitional consciousness, and when I get a response there, then I accept.

- D. H. Lawrence

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

- Melodie Beattie

Perhaps the most important thing we can undertake toward the reduction of fear is to make it easier for people to accept themselves, to like themselves.

- Bonaro W. Overstreet

I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.

- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

I accept the universe!

(Ralph Waldo Emerson’s reported response: “By God, she’d better!”)

- Margaret Fuller

Ralph Waldo Emerson