‘Serenity Scene’
…i am reminded, in the calmness of this vista, of the first part of ‘the serenity prayer’ – “ god, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change” – there is nothing harder to do in our own strength i think…
‘ Listen To The Lion’
Lions, of course, are symbols of courage and bravery.
Courage features in the second part of The Serenity Prayer:
“Courage to change the things I can”
I think about that which I can change at the start of the day. Whether I act depends largely on whether I have the guts to do so.
Some leonine musical inspiration comes from Irish singer-songwriter in one of his more extended songs:
” I shall search my very soul
for the lion
inside of me”
(Mr. Morrison really rips loose with the vocal chords on this number; the repetition too, as he hits full trance and utters the phrase “listen to the lion” over and over again at one point in the song. It makes for one of his more challenging listens, but that’s possibly the point. I still marvel that Van, well into his musical work by then, was still only 26 or so when this track was recorded – it sounds like someone with way more time and miles under the belt).
Four aerial root formations dangle from the branches of an ancient Pohutukawa tree.
Like woody stalagtites.
And like the beards of old wise men.
Wisdom.
The final request of The Serenity Prayer
The hardest thing to find, and when I really don’t have a clue, this favourite tree reminds me that it may come eventually…
You may well have seen or heard this prayer before (actually it is just part of a longer prayer written in the early 1930s by US theologian Reinhold Niebuhr) , most closely associated with Alcoholics Anonymous and other recovery programmes.
It is however a design for life and wellbeing for anybody really.
You don’t have to be religious; you can call on your own understanding of the divine.
And even if you are a dyed in the wool atheist you can permit yourself the assets mentioned in the words to be used at your disposal to meet most life situations.
I use the prayer more often than my own ego would like, for the simple fact is that I often don’t have a f**king clue about how to react to certain things.
If nothing else, it gives me a pause before I might plow on ahead and do some damage…
Ebb Then Flood 