Gratitude Practice 2023 Nov 14: The Quest for Serenity

“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.”

These big words bounce around my heart and mind on the regular these days. Grant. Accept. Courage. Wisdom. Change. Difference. Serenity. Grateful for what I am learning about these complicated critical concepts. Grateful for the teachers and guides and champions and truth tellers. Grateful for the agitators and the challengers and those who show up in sacred soul stretching ways. Grateful for when the hard becomes holy and I'm learning that with time and a hell of a lot of personal spiritual work all things can eventually become holy. Never fast. Rarely within my hoped for timeline. And always in unexpected forms. Becoming grateful for the unavoidable tension and discomfort of growth and development. Grateful for the seasons that have stretched me beyond my known capacity and equally grateful for the sacred seasons of rest and stillness and recalculation. Grateful for the aspects of life that inevitably pull the emergency break and force a few moments of consideration and contemplation and evaluation. Grateful for the flickers and glimpses and blips of serenity and for my growing capacity to feel it, recognize it, experience it and savor it.