Monday, April 16, 2012

Choosing Serenity.

This week we're hoping to take our friend who is ill with cancer out to dinner and the theatre, but won't know until the day before, because he's waiting for an operation date. When I think of him, I say a prayer, and give him to my HP, and to his, because if I think about it for too long, I become fearful, and that helps neither he nor I. It is what it is, and it's utterly out of  my control. I cannot save him from anything he must go through in this life, all I can do is love him, enjoy him, and be grateful for his friendship. When we love, we are opening ourselves to pain, that's part and parcel of the experience of loving, the knowledge that each day we get with another human being is a gift beyond measure; there are no guarantees of time.

From Courage to Change, page 107:

"What I discovered is that what I go through in life is not as important as how I interpret the experience."

Last week I received a compliment which has made me think about how far I have come in my personal growth. We can go for quite a long time stumbling about, working our programs assiduously, but not sure if we're getting much further ahead, and then we'll get a little reminder, perhaps a remark made by a relative stranger, and we'll realise that we've moved along at a steady pace, in those tiny increments of mental change, or in a leap, after a startling realisation - an understanding which shifts my viewpoint a few degrees from my usual, and makes everything look slightly different.

For my sake, and the sake of all those with whom I might come into contact today, I choose serenity.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for all of your posts. I look forward to each and every one of them. May your friend find the same serenity and healing thrown in.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I read that same quote... love it! I also recently received a compliment from someone that made me stop and say to myself, wow, I am moving forward in my program! It was a nice moment and grateful for choosing serenity instead of the chaos.

    Thank you for your posts and wonderful reminders.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love is so much pain at times, but the moments of joy make it all worth it.

    ReplyDelete