Over the years, people have remarked to me repeatedly what a happy person I am. One said she reckoned I was the only truly happy person she'd ever known. I am happy. I really am. And I've mulled it over throughout the years, how I have come to be, perhaps, remarkably happy, happier than many.
What I've come up with is this. The serenity prayer. I read it when I was just a little boy. I don't know where I saw it but it just made sooooooo much sense to me. It came to resonate deeply inside of me. To my core. I never forgot it. Don't worry about the shit you can't control and try your best to make the other stuff better. So simple and, I speculate, a recipe for a happy life.
Years later, I discovered that it's a valuable part of AA, a program for which I have a great deal of respect; it having helped numerous friends live much better, sober lives.
Anyway, here it is, attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, Lutheran theologian (1892–1971)
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.
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