Day #13 – Acceptance 100 Days Gratitude Challenge 2017

Day #13 – Acceptance
100 Days Gratitude Challenge 2017

Yesterday we spoke of acceptance. This story I read soon after which illustrates how we need to be accepting of things we cannot change.

The Ugly Fairy

There was once a fairy who was learning how to be a fairy godmother. She was most magical and wonderful and the kindest and cleverest of all fairies. However, she was also a very ugly fairy. And no matter how much she showed her wonderful qualities, it seemed that everyone was determined to believe that the most important thing about a fairy was her beauty. In the fairy school they ignored her, and every time she flew off on a mission to help a child or anyone else in trouble before she could say a word they were already screeching and yelling at her: "Ugly! Get out of here, weirdo!"

Despite her being little, her magic was very powerful, and more than once she had considered using it to make herself beautiful. But then she remembered what her mother had always told her: "My dear, you are what you are, warts and all; and never doubt that you are this way for a very special reason..."

But then, one day, the witches of the neighbouring land invaded and destroyed the country, putting all the fairies and wizards in prison. Our fairy, just before being attacked, put a spell on her own clothes and, helped by her ugly face, she managed to pass for a witch. That way she was able to follow the witches back to their den.

Once there she used her magic to prepare a big party for everyone, decorating the cave with bats, toads, and spiders. The music was provided by a pack of howling wolves. While the party was in full swing, the fairy hurried off and set free all the fairies and wizards who had been imprisoned. When all of them were free, they worked together on one big spell which succeeded in trapping the witches inside the mountain for the next hundred years. And for the next hundred years, and more, everyone remembered the great bravery and intelligence of the ugly fairy.

And from that day on no one in that land ever saw ugliness as a disgrace. Whenever someone ugly was born, people were filled with joy, knowing that for that new person great things lay ahead.

*** end of story***

There were some conversations after my post yesterday on whether we should accept everything that happens in our life or should we resist and build a better outcome. Some of you would recall that Michael Jackson could not accept the colour of his skin and tried very hard to become fairer. And we also know the consequences he suffered because of this obsession. While there are others who refuse to accept their circumstance of being born in a poor family and raise their income level to unheard of heights.

What we cannot change we can accept – like the colour of our skin, our ancestry, our face, nose, other people’s behaviour, etc, What we can change and wish to change we should, like our own behaviour, our reaction to stimuli, our economic or emotional state, etc.

I’m grateful that we have the choice to change our circumstances if we wanted to. This is the greatest gift that God has given us.

Knowing what to change and what to retain is a gift and individuals and organisations need to understand and be aware of it.