The Second Line of the Serenity Prayer

 The courage to change the things I can...

Serenity Prayer

Let's look at the second line of the serenity prayer, shall we?

Courage

What is meant by "courage? " 

I used to think that courageous people were people who had no fear.  I would look at certain confident people around me and be so amazed when they got up to speak in public or did some of the many things that terrified me.  I thought there was something very, very wrong with me because I was so full of fear.  

I understand where' my'  fear comes from now and I understand where fear in general comes from.  It was in the  learning of that, that I discovered and befriended a certain courage. 

Believe me, courage does not mean the absence of fear.  It is simply the willingness to accept fear and "do it" or "be it" anyway!  I have always had a propensity for words and a propensity towards teaching. My Post trauma anxiety was so overwhelming in me, however,   that I often denied my calling in order to avoid the fear activation.  I used to pray and imagine a life without fear.  I waited, then, for fear to go away so I could live the life I felt I was meant to live. 

Ummm! As you yourself may have discovered fear does not go away on its own and the more we avoid the bigger it gets! 

I realized one day that I had to speak, with or without fear.  So I joined Toastmasters and dragged my fear kicking and screaming to the podium with me.  I literally passed out, more than once. Still I would get up and keep going up, again and again and again. Eventually, I was participating in local, district and regional competitions and actually placing! I began to speak to large crowds, to teach at a College etc etc. I actually became a public speaker and educator.

The fear never went away.  I still feel it everytime I speak..but beside me I now know I have a valuable and supportive friend that sees me through... my willlingness to do it anyway. That is courage.

Change

Change, of  course, in this line means putting effort and energy into making something different than what it is. We do not begin change until we are accepting of what is.  That is always the first step.  Next...we decide if change is necessary and within our control.  How do we do that?  We make sure it isn't ego we are listening to.  Get quiet and still, go past the reactive mind to the Self.  What are you being guided to do? 

It is also good to begin by making small changes rather than big ones.  Start small.  If it a major transition you are being guided toward, break it into small mangeable steps and take one at a time. 

As I have written, I have been feeling a little overwhelmed by situations in my life and sensing that major change was coming.  I began preparing for this possible life transition by doing something very small.  I cut my hair last evening and I painted some walls.  These small changes offered  a practice ...preparing me for the possibility of major change coming up.  I will wait for guidance for that. 

Things

I meant to make this a seperate point in the previous entry but failed to.  So I will include it here.

'Things'  are all the objects of matter and energy that make up the world of form.  They include the material objects we surround ourselves with, money, jobs, situations and circumstances.  They also include our relationships with people,our bodies,  our thoughts, feelings, ideas and beliefs. Things are ever changing, bound by time and space, come and go, emerge and then dissolve etc etc.

It includes all the material world stuff we too often come to see as our only reality!

I can

Hmmm!  When I look at these two words together I think of the famous line from,  The Little Engine that Could: ..."I think I can, I think I can." How important it is to empower ourselves with a certain ability to effectively create change in our lives.  On my way  to the podium in my Toastmasters' years I would recite to myself, "I can do this!  I can do this!  I may be afraid...it may be painful...and the outcome may be far, far from perfect...but I can do this!" 

I also think of Maharshi.  Who is the "I" that can?  I think this line speaks to the ego more than the Self but I believe we need to make this realization at the egoic level before we advance to the spiritual. Even though the physical world is not our reality, even though the ego "I" is not who we are ...we can play with form here.  These clumps of flesh and these individual minds can manipulate our outer world to some degree. We have the power to clean up some of the mess on the surface so it is easier to get to the depth.

Summing up the second line

So what does this line say then?

We are asking our higher power to give us the willingness to step through  fear so we can create a  difference in the  physical world,  in those situations we have the  ability to do so.

All is well