Acceptance

For those of you who have labored through the past couple of posts - you will be happy to know that the discussion of serenity is quickly coming to a close.

In the same conversation that the Big Book talks about serenity as inversely proportional to expectation it also discusses acceptance as inversely proportional to expectation and by inference acceptance as directly proportional to serenity. Essentially it boils down to this - if I have a high level of expectation I will have a low level of both serenity and acceptance, and if I have a low level of expectation then I will have a high level of both serenity and acceptance. Alternatively, if I maintain a high level of acceptance then I will have a high level of serenity.

This is where the serenity prayer makes most sense. "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." I would offer that the amount of energy that one applies to pushing down their expectation level is better spent looking around at their world and learning to live in acceptance. Acceptance truly will be the key to finding and keeping happiness alive and well in our lives.

Consider this, "Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God's world by mistake." If we were to own this it would quickly point us to the realization that when we focus on error in the world we are again taking back the position of director of our life. We are ill-equipped to be the director as we lack both the experience and resolve, and for any of us that have previously relinquished this not-what-it's-cracked-up-to-be title I can think of nothing more frustrating than taking it back on. Trust me it is far more rewarding and significantly less difficult to just say "Okay, this was sent my direction I need to accept it and move on."

Some of you are wondering if it's really that simple. Can the quality of my life increase exponentially simply by accepting the things around me as exactly the way they are supposed to be? I could give you my answer, and I have tried to make a case for just this over the past week, but I prefer you just try it. Come on try it -- you might like it.