Ha! That is a good alteration. Note that I did not state that Bill W wrote the Serenity prayer. But I thought it was he who had implemented it into the AA world and written into the Big Book.
Ha! That is a good alteration. Note that I did not state that Bill W wrote the Serenity prayer. But I thought it was he who had implemented it into the AA world and written into the Big Book.
I stand corrected! It was a (New York) group decision in 1940 to promote the prayer for AA use but it did not appear in the first 164 pages of the Big Book which is the foundation, and unchanged part of all subsequent editions. It was adopted by groups (as a recited prayer) in groups across the country over the next decade and found its way into "official" AA Literature in a book called "12 Steps and Twelve Traditions" in 1953.
One of the most "Stoic" applications of the ideas of the Serenity Prayer found in the later pages of the Big Book (in the 3rd and 4th editions) is this:
"And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situationтАФsome fact of my life
тАФunacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment."
From that vantage point one can begin to mindfully address what needs to be changed which is almost always within ourselves.
Sorry to be so pedantic here. You just fell into my personal rabbit hole I call "The Stoics, Spinoza, Sobriety and Me."
Today I am grateful for the opportunity to remember some things because of your comments. Thanks and wishing you serenity in the next weeks ahead. Cheers!
Ha! That is a good alteration. Note that I did not state that Bill W wrote the Serenity prayer. But I thought it was he who had implemented it into the AA world and written into the Big Book.
I stand corrected! It was a (New York) group decision in 1940 to promote the prayer for AA use but it did not appear in the first 164 pages of the Big Book which is the foundation, and unchanged part of all subsequent editions. It was adopted by groups (as a recited prayer) in groups across the country over the next decade and found its way into "official" AA Literature in a book called "12 Steps and Twelve Traditions" in 1953.
One of the most "Stoic" applications of the ideas of the Serenity Prayer found in the later pages of the Big Book (in the 3rd and 4th editions) is this:
"And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situationтАФsome fact of my life
тАФunacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment."
From that vantage point one can begin to mindfully address what needs to be changed which is almost always within ourselves.
Sorry to be so pedantic here. You just fell into my personal rabbit hole I call "The Stoics, Spinoza, Sobriety and Me."
Today I am grateful for the opportunity to remember some things because of your comments. Thanks and wishing you serenity in the next weeks ahead. Cheers!