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Secular revisions to the serenity Prayer.
I made some edits to make this prayer useful as a serene pledge.

Right now, I can serenely accept what I can not change;
Courageously change what I can,
And by this better tell the difference.

Right now, I can come back to this day: this moment.
If it is hard, I can half smile, and with compassion, accept hardship as the pathway to peace.
If I have leapt to judgement, I can step back to the path;
To the world as it is, not as I would have it.

I can trust in what may come if I continue on this path:
So that I may be reasonably happy in my life,
And share this happiness with the life beyond me.

LucasfromGR 6 Aug 19
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13 comments

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1

Addiction will not be beat ith a new incantation.

2

Had to double check I read this in Agnostics and not AA. (Iā€™m one week shy of 6 years sober)

Feel free to share it if an AA person does not like the religious version.

@LucasfromGR sadly the ā€œGod thingā€ keeps people who need the help and support AA has to offer away.I relied on it heavily for my first 90 days. These days my path to sobriety is weed/yoga/meditation, and solitude in nature. I lived in the middle of Yellowstone for 6 months, 100 miles from any entrance. Yellowstone healed me in ways words cannot describe.

@SarahSiddons there you go !!!šŸ™‚i applaud your
transformation and grit.i am 4yrs sober.I have gratitude
always,thank you for thinking outside the "box".You are a
shinning example!ā™¾

2

THE SENILITY PRAYER:
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
The good fortune to run into the ones I do, and
The eyesight to tell the difference.

1

Jefferson would admire your efforts Iā€™m sure.

1

Is it a prayer or a pledge? Is it both? I don't need either to be a better person. I treat people how I want to be treated.

1

Nice! It's now a part of philosophy. No religious attachments necessary to follow.

2

That is lovely, thank you!

2

I like it! It's very humanistic, fostering strength from inside oneself, rather than a source outside oneself. Good job!

This edited version could help the many who struggle with trying to pretend that an outside source is what's giving them strength.

Just like Dorothy and all in the Wizard of Oz, the powers have always been within us, we just need to recognize and exercise the willpower, courage, serenity, compassion toward ourselves and our surroundings.

2

I'm okay with a daily commitment to the goals of the said prayer, but I don't understand the need for prayer. There is no one to listen.

Yeah, thats why i changed the prayer to a pledge, an affirmation of how to proceed through struggle without some magic man listening.

@LucasfromGR
Yes!

It reminds me of Al-anon, from time to time, too which I have worked with others in need from those who did not understand the harm they were inflicting upon onthers, especially the ones they supposedly labeled as love ones!!!

2

Agree nice work

bobwjr Level 10 Aug 19, 2019
1

I wholeheartedly agree.

These days I tell people I consider myself a classic Greek Stoic because I agree almost entirely with them -- Epictitus, Seneca, et.al. -- largely because of the sentiments you expressed. šŸ˜

2

This might be out of line, but:

There is a tv commercial about a little girl asking why her mother washes the dishes before putting the dishes into the dishwasher?

The little girl states then what is the dishwasher for?

One must ask what is a prayer for secular or not!!!!

Not out of line at allšŸ™‚. Thats why i revised it and called it a pledge. An affirmation of struggle and how to proceed that does not require an external magic. Did you like the pledge?

3

Thank you for editing this. The short form is one of the few prayers that strikes a chord with me, I love having a secular version.

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