Acceptance

View everything that comes your way—the good as well as the challenging—with acceptance of whatever you are given. ~ Dean, Amy E. Morning Light: A Book of Meditations to Begin Your Day (Kindle Locations 268-269). Hazelden Publishing. Kindle Edition.

"Thank you." Have you ever said that
when you would prefer to spit in their face?
I certainly have. When the comment is an insult,
when the act is a token in the right direction
but you feel it's so minimal as to be an affront...
Harvey Mindess says, no hypocrisy, injustice
or foolishness (only) but life but "to accept ourselves,
not blindly and not with conceit,
but with a shrug and a smile."
Maybe that's what I'm doing with "Thank you."
If I'm being ridiculed, insulted, belittled
I can accept it, knowing it's not my due,
but understanding not "rising"to the insult
actually places me on an elevated plain,
and I can be comfortable in knowing
who I am, what I'm worth, that words
aren't sticks and stones and I need not
acknowledge their impact. What a person thinks of me
is none of my business so long as I behave
as I know I have a right to acceptance.