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June 17th Hazelden Thought for the Day

Wisdom never kicks at the iron walls it can’t bring down.
—Olive Schreiner

God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change. Many times – yesterday, last week, today, and even tomorrow – we’ll come face-to-face with a seemingly intolerable situation. The compulsion to change the situation, to demand that another person change the situation, is great. What a hard lesson it is, to learn we can change only ourselves! The hidden gift in this lesson is that as our activities change, often the intolerable situations do, too.

Acceptance, after a time, smoothes all the ripples that discourage us. And it softens us. It nurtures wisdom. It attracts joy and love from others. Ironically, we often try to force changes that we think will “loosen” love and lessen struggle. Acceptance can do what our willpower could never accomplish.

As we grow in wisdom, as we grow in understanding, as we realize the promises of this program, we’ll stand ready, as women, to weather all our personal storms. Like the willow in the wind, we’ll bend rather than break. And we’ll be able to help our sisters become wise through our example.

My lessons are not easy. But they will ease my way. Better days begin, today.

From Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey © 1982, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation