One time I told a friend that I didn’t really care much for musicals. This clearly upset her. She reminded me of all of the talent and creativity that it takes from the cast, and the director, and the musicians, and the dancers, and the songwriters and the costume people and stage designers to put on an excellent musical. And I absolutely agreed with her. Musicals are an intense creative feat. It is wonderful that people love to put on musicals and other people love to partake in watching them. I have enjoyed watching tidbits of musicals in my life. I have gone to musicals and found them to be interesting, but they really aren’t my preference in entertainment, and this is okay. Just as some people are rabid sports fans and other people just don’t get the thrill, or see the point in watching people playing games, this is all okay. I’m okay. You’re okay.
Some people adore celebrating the holidays. Some people really, really don’t care for this time of year, and a lot of us fall somewhere in between these two extremes. And there can be a year-by-year variance in this, too, for all sorts of reasons. You are not being a negative person by having preferences. It is possible for you to not like something and still be a positive person. A negative person tries to ruin things for others. They try to recruit people to like and dislike the same people, places, and things that they like, and negative people often take personal offence, if others don’t share their same inclinations. If you act like a sulky, surly Grinch at Christmas dinner, then sorry, you are being negative. If you try to goad other people into ruining Christmas dinner with you, then you are being a negative, toxic person. If you don’t like Christmas dinner, put a time limit for how long you will be there, or even choose not to attend and do something different. If you do choose to attend Christmas dinner and/or other holiday festivities, be polite, be nice, be cordial and don’t ruin it for others. This allows you to be a positive person, who accepts your own preferences and dislikes. This is the same if you go to a musical and you yawn loudly, and roll your eyes, make fun of the actors, and disturb other people’s experiences. When you are doing this, you are being a jerk. You don’t have to like musicals. You don’t have to go to musicals. You don’t have to understand why other people really get into musicals. You don’t have to convince others to agree or disagree with your own likes and dislikes. You don’t need validation for your own preferences and aversions, and other people don’t need your approval either.
If you are accepting of yourself, you tend to be a lot more accepting of others. You don’t have to feel guilty if you don’t love the holidays . . . or musicals . . . or sports . . . . Try to get vicarious happiness by watching others totally enjoying experiencing activities which they really love, even if you don’t love the same activities which they do. Acceptance isn’t the same as giving up or giving in. It’s just a stop of resistance. Acceptance is allowing. Acceptance is allowing yourself to feel what you feel, like what you like, dislike what you dislike, and giving others room to do the same, and be who they are, in this massively multi-faceted world. Acceptance is taking yourself and everything else, just as it is, right in this moment, and allowing it to just be. Acceptance lets curiosity and peace and wonder take over and soften the harder, energy-sucking emotions such as denial and rigidity and guilt and resentment and shame. Acceptance drops your side of the rope, lets go of the “shoulds” and all of the lofty expectations and it allows the tranquil awareness which is deeply implanted in all of us, to just notice all that is, and to be in nothing but pure awe of it all.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.