Sunday morning

As a child, there were three prayers that I learned:  the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Serenity Prayer.  It is the God that inspired the latter of the three that I identify with and pray to the most.  In case you don't know it, the words of the serenity prayer are 

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.

A lot to say in just one sentence.

For some reason, this prayer came to me the other day and I've repeated it at least a dozen times to myself since then.  It really comforts me, a prayer for wisdom to differentiate between what I have control over in life, or what I am responsible for, and what I'm not.  So many fears and anxieties, I feel like, come from a lack of vision in this area.  Sometimes I know I'm getting it wrong, but am not sure how to get it right -- do I let it go?  Do I try harder?  Sometimes I spend much time just trying to figure out if I should proceed in a given area, not to mention the question of how.  And that is where the wisdom piece comes in, the wisdom to know the difference. 

I don't have a whole lot to say at this point...  The students all left yesterday.   What a whirlwind month!  Our last couple of weeks were as jam-packed as ever (hence the lack of blog entries) including a weekend-long trip out to El Mozote in the eastern part of the country, and our re-entry retreat and despedida party this weekend.  Annie and I are, without a doubt, spent...  but accepting of that as part of the process.   A friend who works with delegations here calls this period the "hangover."  Ha!  That's certainly what it feels like sometimes!

I just wanted to write and say hi..  and hopefully I will have more time over these next two weeks to return to a more regular writing pattern.  

Peace be with all of you,

love,

elizabeth

 

P.S.:  For the YouTube fans out there....I've been enjoying this song, and can't seem to get enough of it lately: I Only Ask of God.  Interestingly enough, it is by a Middle-Eastern Hip Hop group called Outlandish, and is an English version of a song by Nicaraguan artist Leon Gieco.  (I first heard the song here in El Salvador years ago, as part of the popular music repertoire.)  Outlandish has a multitude of politically-conscious songs, most about the hard realities faced by youth of the Middle East.  The three artists in the group are collectively: Pakistani, Moroccan, Honduran, Muslim and Catholic, based out of Denmark.  Just a very neat blend of languages, culture, musical influence and global realities...  Check them out on YouTube.