Cut-And-Pasting Seaweed

God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change.
Serene:  Calmness; peacefulness; a lack of agitation or disturbance.
Accept:  To receive, especially with a consent, with favor, or with approval.

I like how acceptance implies that we're receiving something willingly, because we want to.  I always took this part of the prayer to imply that when there's something I don't like it gets jammed down my throat and I just gotta be OK with that.  This is saying: "Thank you, sir.  May I have another?"

Courage to change the things that I can.
Courage:  The quality of a confident character not to be afraid or intimidated easily but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
Change: To become something different; to make something into something else.

I like how courage implies that stupidity need not apply for a job requiring bravery.  The guy running right at the machine gun nest isn't necessarily brave.  More like incautiously inconsiderate.

And wisdom to know the difference.
Wisdom:  The ability to make a decision based on the combination of knowledge, experience, and intuitive understanding.
Different: Distinct; separate.

Solution:  An act, plan or other means, used or proposed, to solve a problem.
Problem:  A difficulty that has to be resolved or dealt with.

I am a problem finder.  I must enjoy problems or I wouldn't spend so much time wallowing in them.

I'll continue with my lazy post today by printing the text of the full Serenity Prayer as it was written by Reinhold Niebuhr sometime in the 1930s.  Really, all I've done is look up some definitions.  Be that as it may I do like the second verse, much less widely circulated, but still chock full of popular slogans found in the recovery world.  It starts out with One Day at a Time - reminding me that all I got is right now.  It does get a little religious for my taste before diving into Let Go and Let God - reminding me that I'm not the one tasked with modifying the world so that it's pleasing to me but the one who needs to be taking the best out of whatever situation I find myself in.  There are some good reminders that I'm not going to escape pain, nor should I want to, and that the best outcome I can hope for is reasonable happiness, a real bummer for a euphoria junkie like me.

God, give me 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.

Stress: the condition that results when the mind overrides the body's desire to choke the shit out of some asshole who desperately needs it.