It is what it is . . .

I don’t know who originally coined this simple little phrase but it certainly fits multiple occasions.  Actually it’s a great reminder that we can seldom affect change in any one else.  We can model behavior we’d like to see.  We can suggest a different course of action. We can even plead to be heard.  But finally, “it is what it is.”  What others choose to do, how others choose to think, how others respond to us is up to them.

Simply accepting what we can’t change in people or situations is the clearest path to experiencing a peaceful moment.  I crave peace these days.  Perhaps I fought too many battles when I was younger.  Perhaps with age, wisdom does come calling.  What I do know for certain is that when I see or hear something that I’d like to stick my nose in, it helps if I remember there are two kinds of business: my business and none of my business.

Saying to myself, and others too, on occasion, that it is what it is, relieves the tension in the moment.  Tension doesn’t benefit any experience that I have ever had.