A good prayer

God, grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can 

and the wisdom to know the difference.

…

Serenity

I like serenity.  I want to have it.

But accept those things?  

The really bad things?  

Ack!  I don’t want to accept them.

However if there is nothing I can do to change them, what choice do I really have?

Besides maybe I ought to save my energy for something more important.

Like to change the things I CAN.

Because yes, that takes courage.  

And work.

And discipline and diligence.

And follow-through.

And yes, energy.

But how do I know which things I can change?

That’s the tricky part.

That’s where the wisdom comes it.

It takes wisdom. 

It takes lots of things.  

It takes learning and practice.

It takes being teachable.

Being willing to admit I might be wrong.

It takes humility.

It might take asking for help.

It might take working my butt off only to see nothing change.

It might take trial and error.

It might take coming up with a good strategy, but not getting any credit for it.

…

I guess maybe it works better for me to invert this thing.

Turn it upside-down.

Start with the wisdom.

Figure out which things I might be able to change and which things I can’t.

Next I can pour my energy into the ones where I can make a difference.

And THEN maybe I can be okay to accept the things I cannot change.  

Or at least I’ll be ready for a nap by then!

…

I really like what Melissa Camara Wilkins says about this acceptance thing.  She speaks of giving ourselves space to own the frustration and awful emotions that come with not being able to change things. Her words help me with this serenity thing.

…

So here's to serenity and courage and wisdom.

I could afford to learn more about how to practice all three.

Because obviously I can’t fix the problems of the world.  Duh.

But I can sure enough find a bunch of ways to make the world a better place.