Change Happens, but That Doesn't Mean I Have to Like it

Dealing with change, or trying to, is something I've learned I'm not really very good at.  Not that I ever thought I was; it's just that these past few months have highlighted how really bad I am at accepting change.

I do everything I can to resist change and when I can't resist any more, I go into Anxiety Girl mode.  Leaping into panic in a single bound, I can immediately create my very own horror movie in my brain in which everything bad that could possibly happen does.

But deep down I know that all things change.  I know that all things must change. I realize that once we stop changing, we also stop living. So even if my first response to change is to plant my feet firmly and resist with body and soul, and my second response is to don my Anxiety Girl tights, I am trying to learn to stop, take a deep breath and let the change happen.

One thing I'm learning to do is to pray the famous Serenity Prayer -- not the short version we all know, but the entire actual prayer.  Sometimes it helps a little.  Sometimes it helps a lot.

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.

--Reinhold Niebuhr