Serenity Prayer

se·ren·i·ty

 [suh-ren-i-tee]

noun, plural -ties for 2.

1.

the state or quality of being serene,  calm, or tranquil;sereneness.

2.

(usually initial capital letter) a title of honor, respect, or reverence, used in speaking of or to certain members of royalty (usually preceded by his, your,  etc.).

Origin: 
1400–50; late Middle English serenite  < Latin serēnitās

Apart from the definition of the word serenity, nothing interesting comes up when you google the word 'serenity.' There's an action movie (irony!) as well as a pretty disturbing band website but I did notice find something useful. 

A villa in Kerala called 'serenity'. The cost for a single night in its double bedroom is around Rs. 15,000. I suppose it's worth the price you pay but it makes me wonder if in today's world, serenity comes at a cost with a pretty hefty price tag for some. And so people learn to make do without something that costs them something. 

And usually when something costly is required, it's a great time to pray. 

God, give us grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

I learned interesting things from wikipedia about the serenity prayer - about it being used by Alcoholics Anonymous as well as other 'twelve-step programs'. A more secularized version of the prayer is what is usually circulated acknowledging the 'universal' God instead of Jesus. It's funny, now that I've read the second half of this prayer for the first time, I feel a lot more hope. 

Off the top of my head, the things that cannot be changed (by me) include:

1. God

2. People

3. Weather

4. Laws of the universe

The list of things that should be changed is endless, of course. Beginning with me and ending with the world - so much can and ought to be changed for the better. 

I guess wisdom is required since at different points, we try to change things that we cannot instead of changing things that we can. Personally, I wonder if instead of consulting ourselves, if we start as this prayer does, with God, can we actually identify what we ought to change and stay away from what we cannot by consulting God? After all, I believe He's running the world so if I just stopped to ask, I might discover what needs acceptance and what really needs change. 

Unlimited Optimism

There are days when I want to change my church, change my company, change blind traditions or my friends. And so I embark on a mission of reading up or showing up, hoping someone would realize the need for something to change. And very little really does change with that approach. But things also change with that approach too. Things that I hadn't planned or expected to matter, changed. So usually I'm facing the other end of change and it's taking place sneakily behind my back. 

"Limited" Resources

Now we all like to think we're applying ourselves well when we try to change things. I know I do! (Occasionally we feel a sense of pride or a rush of goodwill directed at ourselves!) Time, money, talents, when applied rightly produce incredible results. All of them, when managed appropriately, generate more of themselves so we focus on that and get sidetracked into management instead of focusing on what was supposed to happen with the right combination applied to the right situation. I guess it's hard to avoid the temptation to get sidetracked because logic tells us - we can generate more results with more time, money and talents. So it's a trap because there's never enough of those and we're always "running out" of time/money/talent. 

Reality Check

So we tell ourselves - the time is now. Use the money and talent you've been given and make those changes happen. And then we come up with resolutions. And we fail to keep them. 

Change is constant

We all know that things around us keep changing and it's work trying to keep up. Just when you make up your mind to avoid wasting time, you're given a time-wasting device/friend/problem. And then we slip into our old familiar patterns and give up on ourselves and the possibility of any change. We accept what we needn't instead of fighting it. Fighting is difficult. Fighting laziness, impatience, injustice is hard work. I've realized over the past year, you've to fight ugliness to create beauty, fight temptation to stay true to your beliefs, and keep fighting with yourself when you want to give up or give in. 

Fight or Flight

That's the real test. So you decide to fight. Let's take on poverty today! And really all you can do in a day is find out how much work needs to be done and then decide you can't do it alone so you might as well give up now before you 'waste' more time/talent/money. 

Living a day at a time

What would a day spent doing nothing look like? A waste based on the amount of change that you want to make. It takes deep humility to say - I cannot do this in a day. Just as it does when you realize - I cannot do this on my own. We know Rome wasn't built in a day but living a day at a time is hard because it seems like such a 'small' fraction in the world's timeline. And yet it is enough. It is enough because it is a given. You don't earn it - it's there. Moving on to money and talent - things you have to earn/work for. Jobs allow us the opportunity to use our talents/gifts/abilities to make money (though a lot of people don't feel that talent is required to do what they're doing - they're wrong. It needs doing and they're doing it and no one else might if they don't). So a day affords us the opportunity to use time for using our talent and making money. 

Enjoying one moment at a time

If we could do twice as much of something than we normally do, it might make us twice as happy or exhausted with our attempt? Exhausted usually. Our attempts to pack more than is needed backfires on itself. If we can take what each moment has to offer instead of forcing each moment to offer more than it can, we might feel lighter and can take ourselves off the responsibility to produce more and enjoy what the moment affords us. 


This goes against the grain of thought that tells us that if we were more productive each day, we'd feel better about ourselves. If we could get efficient about our work and then improve our productivity, it might ring truer since you're avoiding the needless which automatically allows you to get more out of a moment. Becoming efficient is also slow work at times but is worth the effort since it later allows you to get more out of a moment.

Accepting hardship

If only it were as easy to be done as said. There are days when we are unable to use our talent or make money. Days when we don't do anything of significance such as love or live well. Days when in spite of money or talent,  we face discouraging circumstances or hardships or even our own greatest fears loom large before us. The days when we change nothing and are expected to take things as they are. Those days are difficult to cope with. They are the days when we need divine help and friends and supporters to line up for us and give us the courage to accept what's happening to us.

And there is a sense of peace that goes with acceptance. You stop striving and can let yourself off the hook again. The world is not going any easier on you but you're not exhausting yourself over that. 

More random thoughts flowing out of the prayer later!

Image- courtesy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/62142868/sale-the-serenity-prayer-large-vinyl

Definition- courtesy: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/serenity