-- on that pesky little word "acceptance"

“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.” ~Unknown

I love Carolyn Hax. She states the logical so eloquently that I literally feel my shoulders relax whenever I contemplate her advice. Yesterday she wrote about the embarrassment that happens at being different. I love this because my own path hasn't been traditional and I sometimes feel pressure to follow the same milestones as my peers. And then I have to remember that it's ok, I'm doing the best I can, for me.

Carolyn writes (on telling peers the honest low-down):

Why would anybody care? There's no shame in anything you say: renting, being single, not having children. If anything, the ones who have some societal explaining to do are the ones who grab at milestones because they feel they have to, and not because they're the right choice for them personally.

But even then, I hesitate to condemn them, too, since the more charitable frame of mind is to see people of all kinds as taking their best shot with the life experience that's available to them at the time -- married, single, divorced, unmarried but paired. A little relief from social comparisons would do us all good, methinks.

I love her kind and accepting outlook. Read full column -->