Expect Miracles

Long time ago in a far away land (Utah), I worked at a jail/drug treatment center. I think I've written about this before, because the prior sentence felt a little deja vu.

When people left the rehab center successfully starting the first three steps of the 12 step alcoholics anonymous program, the counselors would give them a special coin. It represents a few of the core concepts talked about in the program.

I received a coin when I quit working there to move back east. This picture was taken recently and so it is clear that I valued the meaning and the true nature of the gift.

This summer, I've taken this coin with me a few places. For Mormons, I guess a CTR ring or a YW necklace would serve a similar purpose - a reminder of a value or a principle.

I've needed this reminder lately. Faith can be hard to keep, especially when tested. But, each time I do those things that renew my faith and hope, it comes back. What a wonderful gift for each of us - all is not lost when despair, fear, pain, or mis-fortune befall us!

Perhaps a year or two from now I will relate all of the experiences of this year, along with all of the lessons learned. It's been tough, but some lessons are learned through experience and no other way. OK, well, sometimes we can bypass a few lessons, but some are required just to have credibility.

Right now I'm learning how to expect miracles - that will be what is required. The back of the coin is just as powerful:

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

Wisdom, my friends, that is what experience can bring as well - once I get over the failure to learn the same lessons over and over and over and over and .........


Serenity Now! - another catch phrase from the rehab. (-:



Related post: Serenity Now

Serenity Now

A long time ago (it's not quite to "once upon a time," but I feel myself getting there), I worked at a drug and alcohol treatment center in Utah. It was quite the experience. Though I was only minoring in psychology, my friends gave me a chance to work with them in this environment of constant drug tests, leading "group," driving white county vans to methadone treatment for the heroine addicts, fetching food from the attached county jail and hoping there would be an extra tray of food for a free lunch as well as the lovely experience of patting new admissions down for drugs and going through their belongings (food, clothing, meds, drinks, trash, etc. all mixed up in the luggage or most frequently a big black plastic bag).

It was meaningful, funny, sad, enlightening and tragic all wrapped into a little building on the side of the mountain.

While people were in the treatment center, they had to start working on the first three steps in the 12 step Alcoholics Anonymous. Here are the steps - http://www.aa.org/en_pdfs/smf-121_en.pdf

Though I have a hard time remembering the steps, I do remember the first part of the serenity prayer and find myself repeating it often. I'll admit to saying "serenity now!" in a somewhat joking manner when difficult situations come up and thus the appreciation for the Seinfeld video inserted in this post.

It doesn't matter whether you are a recovering addict or not, it is still a wonderfully simple prayer. I love the first four lines.

Here it goes:

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right

if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next.

Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

P.S. I got a little coin when I left the treatment center. The first part of the prayer was engraved on one side of the coin. I still have that special coin.