Life's a Roller Coaster (or is it?)

Roller Coasters.....the ups, the downs, the turns, the tunnels - some anticipated, some unanticipated - the anxiety, and the fun....except, when the 'ride' isn't at an amusement park, it's at 'home'.  Many deal with the 'roller coasters' of everyday life with such ease - the ups just float above and the downs are so well taken. I admire those individuals.  


I found myself 'fighting' with either the roller coaster Driver or the roller coaster Track this week. Whichever, I didn't like how my 'roller coaster' life was going and I found myself using all of my energy trying to 'halt' what was completely out of my control. Why? I didn't simply let myself accept my life. I was fighting against accepting that the roller coaster was too big for me to move myself, and too heavy to set it on a new course.  


Life is like a roller coaster...we've all heard it before. But with the willingness to accept sadness, grief, difficulties, loss, the unknown, the 'roller coaster' suddenly transforms into a 'train'.  The life ride that was so uncertain, filled with fear and tears, has the ability to become a ride that is slower and calmer, a ride that sways rather than scares...roller coasters can turn into trains.


We have the power to make this change - to turn the roller coaster into a train - by practicing acceptance.  While life most definitely will remain a 'roller coaster', we can 'take the train' route. When we accept that there will be ups and downs, it becomes a decision to live the uneasy life, always riding on the edge, or to live the calmer life, acknowledging the ups and downs. Acceptance and acknowledgment remove unnecessary life anxieties. Life is life and many situations are out of our control - but without worry and fear we are able to truly live. 


My choice - to accept cancer happens and chemo follows. I choose to accept that I can not control cancer or chemo or the good and bad days that result. And I choose to accept that everyday is a new day and that each may not be easy - easy emotionally or easy physically.


The power of acceptance offers us all this same choice - to ride the Roller Coaster or take the Train.