We shall be sharing some excerpts from my book, “The Beauty of 40: Unwrapping the Gift of Midlife” in our next few blog posts. Do enjoy these snippets from my midlife musings, and give some time to reflect on your journey as well. We would love to hear about your thoughts and experiences.
As the Serenity Prayer goes: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
May mga bagay sa buhay na mahirap tanggapin! Kahit alam na alam na natin, we cannot bring ourselves to accept and embrace it! Someone can walk you through it, pero tayo pa rin ang makakatulong sa sarili natin. I realized that my husband, my kids, or my close friends cannot help. With awareness comes acceptance. It is when I accepted what this stage brings that I was able to be aware of the signs of it. No matter how aware and informed I am, sa mga developmental psychology books and journal articles na binabasa ko at na–encounter ko, experience is still the best teacher. Kakaiba pag ikaw na yung nasa gitna ng issues at luha! Puwede talagang sabihin, “Hindi ako prepared!” That’s why I’m walking you through it, so you can somehow be prepared and be assured that it is okay.
Acceptance of a particular reality, situation, or condition is one of the most difficult things to do. We all have ways of running away from something that’s staring us right in the face – the smart kid who suddenly flunks in school, the sibling who only shows up when she needs help, the friend who from out of the blue throws you in the seen zone. We make all kinds of excuses for them, trying our best not to see what’s so obviously real.
It is but natural. We want to protect ourselves. We want to stay in our comfort zones. Besides it’s scary out there! We don’t know what’s out there. So we choose to be in that state of mind where we are comfortable, peaceful, happy. But life has its way of shaking us out of our self-inflicted stupor. Thought the process may be long and dragging, sooner or later we will come to accept our new reality, and from there grow into new persons. There will be challenges, for sure, but it will be all worth it in the end.
“The Beauty of 40: Unwrapping the Gift of Midlife” is available at https://shop.kerygmabooks.com/.