Welcome to our blog, where members of our community share our thoughts and feelings on spirituality, life in our world, supporting each other, and living as Unitarians. Feel free to leave your comments! You can always reach us at: info@newcastleunitarians.org.uk

1 December 2020 – Welcome to Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians!

Acceptance

Our beautiful Art Deco building may be empty right now, but our digital pews are busy, muddling through and joyful. As we come to the end of Lockdown 2, I wanted to open our blog with acceptance.

Wherever you are, physically, emotionally, however you feel now, it’s ok. Worn out, fed up, grieving, joyous, guilt ridden, frightened, feeling the angst of aimlessness, relaxed, pressured, gloomy, distressed, upbeat, or all of the above, it’s ok.

A compassionate acceptance of where you are, how you are, who you are now is a pathway to a gentler, smoother, happier outlook. This is not to say we resign ourselves to our suffering or condone wrongdoing to others, this is not to say we should stand aside and not act to support ourselves and each other, but the route of loving acceptance acknowledges the messiness of being human without fighting the mess. By embracing the whole gamut of complex, difficult emotions and feelings that come with being alive, the pathway forward through life becomes easier to walk, less strewn with the stones  of ‘I should be feeling this way’ that can trip us up. By learning what you can genuinely control you make peace with what you cannot, and experiencing difficulty and hard emotions are part of us.

Make peace with the imperfect wobbliness of being a living human, particularly in 2020. Reach out to yourself with a heartful embrace. It’s ok.