Active Acceptance

This is April. No, not the April who is the main protagonist of my baseball/anime/philosophy/magic screenplay (I've never introduced you to her before? Whoops), but April the month, aka Autism Acceptance Month.

You may have heard it referred to as "Autism Awareness Month," and that's okay too, but I like "Acceptance" because it goes a step further.

Acceptance is one of my favorite words, one of my favorite concepts. In fact, the main theme of the Joel Suzuki series - and a lot of my other works - is acceptance. Not passive acceptance, like when you allow yourself to be taken advantage of, but active acceptance, where you are the one making the choices.

You choose to forgive.

You choose to love.

You choose empathy. Sympathy. Compassion.

You choose to embrace who you are and who others are despite our differences and disagreements.

You choose to appreciate and emphasize the positives in spite of all the challenges that life throws at you.

You choose to be okay with whatever happens, good or bad.

You choose to not be a victim of circumstance, but rather a patient yet active participant who strives to make the world a better place for as many people as possible in whatever ways you can, big or small.

To paraphrase a line from the first Joel Suzuki book: you choose to be happy.

Happy Autism Acceptance Month, everyone. Let's make it a year-round thing.