Tag Archives: Serenity prayer

Appendix

May 4, 2022The Way of PeaceSerenity prayer, Twelve StepsWilliam Tell

THE WAY OF PEACE

The Serenity Prayer

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

The Twelve Steps

THE TWELVE STEPS OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Balto. police commissioner fired

November 25, 2021Local news, Thursday postsAcceptance, Baltimore riots, Serenity prayerWilliam Tell

This rose from the 2015 Freddie Gray riots.

Baltimore Mayor Rawlings-Blake fires Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts

I don’t like this. But I am best to “accept the things I cannot change.”

I have supported both Commissioner Batts and the mayor in everything they’ve done so far. An possible exception: in hindsight, it may have been unwise to shut down the subway Monday afternoon, April 26, as this rendered high school students at Mondawmin Mall unable to leave the area.

I have not studied the various calls for Batts’ resignation, but note that they come from many different directions. That doesn’t, in itself, give any of them merit.

The F.O.P. does not currently appear to me to be a friend of the people.

Originally posted 2015-07-09.

Hell has an exit.

April 8, 2021Bible, Thursday postsAcceptance, Atheists, Awe, Choosing feelings, Choosing thoughts, Embracing what is, Here - Now - Can, Jeffrey Tayler, Jurgen Moltmann, Presence, Psalm 8, Serenity prayer, What IsWilliam Tell

“Embracing what is,” a four-part series:
• As seen on TV: The new, improved hubris
• Belief: The unforgivable sin
• Rationalism cannot save us.
• Hell has an exit.

———— ♦ ————

Connect the dots however you like. Can you connect them all?

The Serenity Prayer does not depend on belief in God, but rather expresses basic principles of life:

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

This pertains to where one directs one’s attention, how one chooses to feel, and where one focuses one’s desires. These are acts not of the mind, but of the will.

Jeffrey Tayler says, “Given the possibility that terrorists may acquire weapons of mass destruction and nuclear states with faith-based conflicts may let fly their missiles, religion may be said to endanger humanity as a whole. No one who cares about our future can quietly abide the continuing propagation and influence of apocalyptic fables that large numbers of people take seriously and not raise a loud, persistent, even strident cry of alarm.”[15]

Fact: those who direct Iran’s nuclear program aren’t likely to listen to an atheist American Islamophobe.

Continue reading Hell has an exit. →

Scrutinizing whiteness

November 7, 2020National news, UncategorizedJudith H. Katz, Serenity prayer, Smithsonian, Value judgments, Wealth gap, White privilege, WhitenessWilliam Tell

It’s OK to be white.

This is the last one, I promise. Continue reading Scrutinizing whiteness →

It’s OK to be OK.

July 25, 2020OUR BEST POSTS, The Way of PeaceA.A., Activism, Al-Anon, Anti-racism, Centeredness, Ghetto, Keep the focus on you, Mind your own business, Rachel Garlinghouse, Racism, Recovery, Scary Mommy, Serenity prayerWilliam Tell

My core belief is fairly obscure.
I never supposed anyone would attack it directly.

Continue reading It’s OK to be OK. →

Joseph in prison

May 30, 2020Bible, Get on your feet, Justice, PovertyAcceptance, Bootstraps, Genesis 39, Grief, Here - Now - Can, Joseph, Opportunities, Presence, Serenity prayer, Stewardship, WorkWilliam Tell

The 07/26/18 post, “When needs are met,” gives the text concerning Joseph’s time in prison, and looks at that time somewhat.

I want to amplify that examination, given that his circumstances and opportunities in that setting weren’t that much different from my own now.
Continue reading Joseph in prison →

I am exhausted from grieving race.

May 23, 2020Get on your feet, Job search/Job prospects, Justice, The William Tell ShowGrief, Here - Now - Can, Jesus, Power, Presence, Race, Racism, Responsibility, Serenity prayer, Stewardship, Upward mobilityWilliam Tell

The practice has done me a ton of damage, and no good.

So now I take a different approach. Continue reading I am exhausted from grieving race. →

Does McDonald’s discriminate against the homeless?

March 5, 2020Get on your feet, Homelessness, Justice, Poverty, Squalor, Thursday postsFree Speech Handbook, McDonald's #2763, Serenity prayer, Take things in stride, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

UPDATES APPEAR IN THE COMMENTS.

Blogging experts tell us to give our posts dramatic titles. I might not tell the story at all, but on the one hand there is an expectation that (though I seldom do) a homeless blogger will tell about the difficulties homeless people face. On the other hand, it provides occasion for me to set forth William Tell’s current approach to injustice.

It will also let me model the principles of Free Speech Handbook.

This concerns an incident of October 7, 2014.
Continue reading Does McDonald’s discriminate against the homeless? →