Serenity Prayer.
Over the last few days I gave up my power countless times. The Serenity Prayer was not uppermost in my mind. Obviously in self-will, I did not win the mind game. In fact, I totally allowed people, places, and things—that I could not change—to get me down. That’s what happens when I say I want to be a better person—I am given opportunities to BE a better person.
I love the Serenity Prayer, in part it says,
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
When I practice that simple way of being, my life feels great. I am in sync with the universe. But when I am not practicing that way of living, my mind is in battle. I am at war with things I have no power to control.
What I appreciate about the Serenity Prayer is that it is not asking me to be a passive bystander, accepting anything and everything that happens to me. On the contrary, it provides me with two options for dealing with everything in life. It says, change what I can. It then says, if there is no way of changing a condition or situation in my life, THEN my job is to accept things as they are.
Well, I did not accept what I could not change this week. On a flight to Miami, I sat behind 3 crying babies and was subjected to a toddler who felt the airplane’s aisle was his playpen. There were no other seats and the mother of the toddler was offended that anyone should ask her to sit her toddler down.
This was a situation I could neither change nor control. Instead of accepting what I could not change, I allowed myself to be pissed off for 6 hours. Shame on me!
I always have a choice.
I’m Francine Ward.
