Excellent. Day 22 of exercising, gratefulness, and blogging.
I have to say, once you start with one habit, it's easy to pin other simple habits to it, a natural part of our inherent habit-forming mechanism. This is a really cool thing. The critical element to hold yourself to is not all the other little habits you pin on, but that you're dedicated to one or two simple habits, leaving the rest to add on as they will. But just by invoking the first good habit, you pave the way for the other good habits to come. It's that first step, man! Always, the first step needs to be taken, then the rest will follow.
So many darn first steps.
Anyway, I'm grateful for whoever came up with the Serenity Prayer.
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.
Apparently, this is attributed to Reinhold Neibuhr, whom I need to study up on. He apparently influenced a lot of major leaders. I would edit out the Christian references as I am not Christian, and I would just think of the Universe, Universal power, Nature, God as a non-anthropomorphic entity.
It's about trusting that things will turn out all right, no matter what. I was thinking about how I have many (universe willing) decades ahead of me, no matter what the state of my joints, and I can live each day with great joy, as much as I can muster, for all those decades, or resign myself to always being dissatisfied and unhappy. It's such an interesting thing to balance acceptance and willfully doing things. I've always liked the phrase "God helps those who help themselves." Perhaps this means to face your problems and do what you can to solve them. Whatever you can't control directly - like what other people think and do, what nature does - you accept, and still live with peace, happiness, and gratitude.
Hmm, how's that for a habit to tack on?
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