History, peace, and acceptance

Alexander, in the middle, with friends and teammates Mitchell and John

Wow, they've made some changes to Blogger since I last posted. Sometimes I wonder why I have this blog, and maybe I've said before, that it's kind of an online journal for me since I haven't been journaling otherwise and scrapbooking has fallen to the wayside. It is extremely important to me that I archive as much as I can for Alexander and future generations. My family is shrinking. There is still a lot of history I can get from my mom (thank God her memory is still sharp, though her views tend to be quite negative when it comes to my family of origin). My brother and I, after some disagreements, have decided to keep our relationship as superficial as possible. Not my choice, and I'm hoping he'll change over time. His wife and I don't talk anymore, over a comment I made that was - in my opinion - misconstrued and blown way out of proportion. Alexander hasn't seen his cousins in several years, and they've never made a trip up here to visit us. My brother admits to always being "out of the loop" so it's difficult to get updates or photos of his kids from him and he doesn't seem to mind or want to change it.
So I try to follow the wisdom of this well-known prayer:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.
                                Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)