The Mud Puddle

As a boy I loved mud puddles. I went out of my way to walk through them. Stomping, swishing through them was fun and freeing. After all, I was a kid. As an adult, I use to find myself avoiding mud puddles. They were messy and cold. After all, it is work to "deal" with them.

What happened to that once fun and freeing activity that it became messy and cold?

When people have stress, problems, or difficulties sometimes they avoid it like a mud puddle. Some people have the idea that if they avoid the mud puddle all of the stress, problems and difficulties that are associated with it will go away as well. That is rarely the case. After repeated attempts to avoid, mask or ignore the mud puddle, we more often than not find ourselves right in front of that puddle once again. We tend to repeat behaviors or patterns until we understand them.

Change

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference. 

The serenity prayer talks about acceptance, courage and wisdom to change.  The wisdom to know when we should accept the change and when we need the courage to change. 

In Trevor Hudson’s book, The Serenity Prayer he says, “Inner change begins when we actually face what it is that needs to change.  Almost always it will be something that robs us of our serenity.  Something that has become a source of discontent and conflict in our relationships.  Something that adds to the tension in and around us.  A number of things come to mind.  It could be our always wanting to be in control, or our explosive temper, or our making rules for others that we don’t keep ourselves, or our long-held resentments, or our not speaking the truth, or our deep-seated prejudices, or our wanting everything perfect around us, or needing to be in the right.  When we are able to identify what needs to change, we are on the road to recovery.”

Change is unavoidable.  New pieces of information are given to me every minute and I change or adapt to the new information.  I spill coffee on my pants.  I bump into a friend I haven’t seen in a while.  Another two inches of paperwork gets dumped into my inbox at the office.  Someone tells me a funny joke that makes me laugh out loud.  I am constantly changing throughout my day.  If I understand that change is unavoidable, why am I so resistant to changing certain behaviors?