Sunday, January 2, 2011

Start Of The Year 2011

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Today I read the January 1 entry in a book called Courage to Change, One Day at a Time in Al-Anon. The Serenity Prayer is well-known in the communities of Twelve Step Programs. It's significance driven home for me in a new way today as, avid reader that I am, I not only read the January 1 entry but almost read the January 2 entry and more on  auto-pilot mode, reading for the sake of reading (and discovering) more. I caught myself as I was about to turn the page.  

Awareness of what I'd just read began to find a home within me and resonate as important: being mindful of this meant to absorb one daily reading at the pace of one reading per day, to do otherwise is to behave in a way that totally contradicts the spirit of the whole message.
The end-part of the reading invited the reader to think of what could be done with just this day, since we are only able to take (immediate) action in this day.

Truthfully, I could have read ahead, a month or a year's worth of entries, who would be the wiser? The answer is: not me. I would be cheating myself of the One Day at a Time experience, that is the basic format for the Twelve Step programs. Which brings me back to the Serenity Prayer, the wisdom to know the difference is not one that I can learn from schools and books, it is the omnipotent wisdom of the ages of the universe that can only come from the source, my higher power, God.

Today I intentionally decided to take a different approach to a couple of ongoing projects. These progress notes might seem like nonsensical details in some parts, however this blog which will stand on it's own, is part of a larger project. 

Some things I did today: TAW morning pages, Lesson 1 in AC; read Bible; called Roma and Jim, Ray, Shan and had several lengthy telephone conversations; read novel with son; laughed, played, exercised with son as we played Wii Sports; prepared special New Year's meals for us; some cleaning; some clutter cleared away too. I didn't get a couple of things done that I'd had in mind, however, I did get several things done that I hadn't planned on.  This was a good start of the year 2011 for me.

Today I am grateful for access to the internet, Panda's new home, Christmas presents, Lagostina cookware, and the ability to read. 

Each day I am grateful for many things, including: Troy and Letitia, family and friends, solitude, books, companionship, music, games, good health, my senses, nature's beauty, delicious foods, safe shelter, technology, clothes, creative inspirations, clean running water, laughter, love, God.


No comments:

Post a Comment