Author: WarrenBluhm

Wordsmith and podcaster, Warren is a reporter, editor and storyteller who lives near the shores of Green Bay with his two golden retrievers, Dejah and Summer. Author of See the World!, The Man Who Crossed Whimsy Avenue, Dejah & Summer in the Time of Magic, A Declaration of Peace, Ebenezer, It's Going to Be All Right, Echoes of Freedom Past, Full, Refuse to be Afraid, Gladness is Infectious, How to Play a Blue Guitar, Myke Phoenix: The Complete Novelettes, A Bridge at Crossroads, The Imaginary Revolution, A Scream of Consciousness, and The Imaginary Bomb.

On change and serenity

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”

I was surprised a while back to learn the Serenity Prayer continues from there, and I was moved by what follows, but I’ll look that up after I finish writing here. Maybe I’ll copy and paste it at the end of this reflection.

I don’t watch the morning news because it is a litany of things I cannot change. In fact, almost everything is stuff that is out of my control. I can control the actions of this earthly vessel and how it is maintained. I can control the thoughts that emerge from my pen and my mouth, most of the time.

And that is pretty much the whole list. I can muster the courage to try to effect change, but I must also muster the acceptance that any change is going to take more than just my efforts. Still, I have to try.

I know, or at least I’m fairly sure, that I will never live in a world where “Love God and love your neighbor” is not just the greatest law but common practice, and I accept that. I do have the power to change myself so that I may live my own life by that law, and I plan to spend the rest of my life working on myself.

Maybe the wisdom in the prayer is understanding that all I have the ability to change is within myself, and the serenity comes from accepting that I cannot change other minds, I can only speak my own mind, in love, and accept the results/consequences.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

Spring cleaning

“I really have to do something about this mind of mine,” he said to himself as once again he thought of something that would be wholly inappropriate if he had said it out loud.

This was not a thought that would offend someone with a thin skin. This was a thought that he knew was inappropriate but it had come, unbidden, into his mind.

“At least I have the good sense not to say it out loud,” he said to himself, “but it’s a little disappointing to be the kind of guy who would think such a thing.

“On the other hand,” he added, “at least I’m the kind of guy who realizes that before he does say it out loud.”

It was small consolation, he knew. But that was better than nothing.