It Starts with ME

This is a variation of an excerpt from "The Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Neibuhr.
God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me.

This makes me giggle, mostly because I know and love the real serenity prayer, but also because it's so true.

 "Grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change." How often do we spend our time plotting to change our significant other, our parents, our siblings, our best friend, our children. How many times have we heard you can't change people, only yourself. Loving people begins with acceptance, of who they are, where they come from, and what they believe in. Quirks, oddities, major malfunctions and all. I can't change people, but I can love them as they are....I believe there is something to love in everybody on this Earth, you just have to make it past YOUR (insert..MY..) judgments to find it.

"The courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me." Ouch. The wisdom to know it's me. Scratch that singular boo-boo, make it a double ouch. Accept you can't change others, but know that you can always yourself. Realize that change starts with you....your perceptions, your judgments, your actions. If you want to see change in the world, or in others, model that behavior in yourself and see if it doesn't in turn change your views.

It's always me. I am responsible for my feelings, and I am the only person I can hold accountable for them. May I always know change starts in me before I can expect it anywhere else.