“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” I need to say this serenity prayer several times a day. The key is knowing the difference between what you can change and what you can’t. I will admit I don’t always do a good job with that. I would love to change some of the laws that govern education in this country, but unless I’m suddenly a member of Congress, I don’t think that is even a remote possibility.
I’m really trying to learn to go with the flow more. It is so much easier on me when I do. The other day when we had two snow days from school, I had to scrape part of my plans for the rest of the semester with my students. But after agonizing over having to revamp what I was going to do with two days less, I came up with what I think will be a better plan. I finally accepted I couldn’t change the fact that it snowed. Once I did, I felt so much better and I could get into the shuffling of the plans to fit the new schedule.
Sunday I had another lesson in going with the flow. My son and his family came over for dinner. I have my Christmas village out with hundreds of little pieces–people, animals, trees. A few weeks ago I took the afternoon putting everything out in a certain place. My two granddaughters in an hour, turned all that upside down and inside out. Dogs on tops of houses. Cars on railroad tracks. Ostriches on the carousel. They had so much fun and so did I! But when they left, I was exhausted (not as young as I used to be–there’s a reason young people have children). I collapsed into my lounge chair and felt like the “grandma who got run over by a reindeer.”
