Accept the Things You Cannot Change

When I was a little girl my mom used to have a wooden plaque hanging by her vanity that had the Serenity Prayer on it. I remember as a child reading it over and over and wondering exactly what it meant.  I picked up my own Serenity Prayer ceramic plaque about 10 years ago pictured here. As an adult I have read it many times as well, and of course I understand the meaning, but in 2011 I got to put into practice the meaning of the Serenity Prayer.  I have discovered that there is a great difference in knowing something and doing it. As 2012 began I wanted to look back on 2011and evaluate the year. I believe as women, mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters we should see where we have been in order to figure out where we want to go. As I reflected upon 2011 I kept coming up with a common theme that defined 2011...ACCEPTANCE.  It was a big year full of acceptance for me. My oldest son graduated from high school and left home to go to college, and my youngest son was entering his junior year which meant the beginning of college applications, SAT's, and more freedom.


All of the events concerning my oldest son were exciting milestones that I was so proud of and I was so happy for his accomplishments, but it was a lot of change. With change we really only have two choices: acceptance or resistance. Since I couldn't stop the natural process of life which includes our children growing up and leaving I chose to embrace these changes early in my son's senior year.  And its a good thing I did because senior year is really all about the end of senior year.  I don't think we were more than a month into senior year and the information started coming home about how to order graduation announcements, cap and gown size, checklists for the exiting process in May, and college decisions had to be finalized. By the end of  January we had graduation announcements in hand, and then prom, and graduation night paper work started coming home.

I made a conscious decision in August 2010 to say to myself, "Give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change." I would repeat these words in my head whenever I began to feel my role as mother and his role as child slipping away.Then in January, I began saying, "I can accept these changes."  And by April, I began to say, "I am excited for these changes, this is a joyful time full of new beginnings."  And finally, in May 2011, when I sat on the field while my son gave a graduation speech as Student Body President I didn't shed one tear. I had prepared myself for this very moment the last nine months. I had ACCEPTED that this moment would arrive and it was a celebration. There was no denying that one chapter of our lives was closing and the unknown was about to begin. But in order to embrace my son's new life and mine too I had to be willing to accept these changes.

I have learned that having the wisdom to accept the things that cannot be changed and to embrace the change that raising children entails is a crucial key to staying balanced. So whether your child is entering kindergarten, junior high, high school, college, or many of the other exciting milestones that fall in between ACCEPT the change and growth as well as your own, because resisting change will only bring heartache. In the long run ACCEPTANCE brings growth and serenity!

What is the most profound lesson you have learned from 2011?