I'm updating my motto Aspiration + Acceptance. The idea being that we should try to improve but we should accept where we are. I've never been happy with Acceptance, not that it's unwise. It reminds me that the word Islam translates to Submission to God, and of the Buddhist concept of surrender, to stop fighting. The notion that if you put your own ego up against the Law of the Universe it's not the Universe that is going to suffer. I believe that. But maybe being raised in the Western tradition I look for a more active alternative, and for now for me the alliterative solution is Appreciation Affirmation. However much we desire to close the distance between ourselves and the Godhood (this was an autocorrect error) Godhead we aspire to we still affirm the relationship we are currently in vis-a-vis that God. I mostly think of this in terms of my guitar, but I guess it applies to my soul in general. Aspiration + Affirmation