The Gift of Accepting What Is

This is not the first time I have realized this about myself, but it seems that the experiences I most long to offer others are also the same ones that I need to offer to myself.  I really believe my ability to accept others as they are without judgment comes fairly easily for me.  Of course, I have times when I say things I regret or become impatient, but generally speaking, I am much more patient with others' growth than my own. I assume some of that is the occupational hazard of my mental health training that keeps you more objective when listening to someone else, but I am clearly being reminded on a daily basis to trust that everything unfolds as it is meant to or a,k.a. "It's all good."
     For several years now, I have been surrounded by so much material on the Laws of Attraction/Creating Your own reality/and manifesting this or manifesting that, I feel as though it put me on a path where I totally fogot how to love and appreciate the "now" I already had.  Recent statements in another blog about the importance of "change" prompted me to share a different perspective. While I agree that change is a part of life and that we need to be open to it when it comes, there are times when I believe we can lose sight of the fact that we just need to let things be. We are creators of our lives but still only co-creators. Divine guidance knows better than we do what we need to have manifest into our lives.
     It began with very inspirational thoughts of having all we desired and countless opinions about how to have more and make it happen. "Believe. Affirm. Let go. Hold on. If you're not happy you can change it" (and apparently should or you're just being 'resistent'). I suppose that is the paradox of this post.  Sometimes the only thing that needs to change is the inability to love what IS; learning to just 'be' with an experience until it naturally unfolds like a flower opening in the sunlight. I don't mean the "I love this, this is so much fun" kind of love but the gentle, forgiving "I'm doing the best I can, it'll all work out" kind of love.  In short, I have in essence spent the last three years trying to create what I thought I wanted and thinking that when , what manifested was just the opposite, I had somehow failed. Money remained 'tight" not "abundant." and a clincal practice "dwindled" versus grew in numbers in spite of all my efforts to intend otherwise. Along with that came a severe depression that I do not see as an obstacle but again, as one of the best teachers for learning to accept  ourselves and be gentle.  Surprisingly, my simple, quiet but financially challenged life is becoming the catalyst toward a more practical type of service toward others after all.  The details aren't clear, but once I stopped trying to 'change' everything, it is more peaceful. The struggles were not evidence of failed affirmations but the very thing that gave the next steps in my life authentic meaining.  Change is much more than a constant state of flux and movement. We are never really stagnant--even when swimming in a dark depression camped out on the couch. To me 'stagnant' is  a word of judgement we place on an outcome when we think something is not happening.  In my experience, we are never truly "stuck" but either in a labyrinth of turning inward and reaching outward or a maze of blocked frustrations, but not stuck.  Regardless, whatever needs to happen will unfold without us having to necessarily change anything at all. Just relax and accept what is. What a gift!