Rescuing a Floundering Being

My mum sent me the following quote the other day:

“God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change: courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference”.

I’m not a religious person (I proudly wear my lapsed Catholic badge as a right to poke fun at myself) but when I’m having one of those ‘talks’ with my mum, she often manages to sneak some sort of religious acumen into the discussion which I actually do appreciate, in a funny sort of way.

We also had a giggle about the fact that the quote was on the wall in my Grandma’s hallway for years, until she realised its associations with Alcoholics Anonymous (& it was swiftly removed). Anyway, I digress...

As with all widely used parables such as this, we can all learn a little from it.

When I dropped my children off at their father’s, my daughter discovered this tiny robin fledgling as she was getting out of the car. Her father did what I’ve witnessed him do so many times before: he took it in, cared for it, provided it with temporary nurture and (as the most recent update informs me) he managed to reinstate it within its natural habitat and ensure that it was once again, free to flourish.

This man who could so easily save the fledgling is struggling at the moment; his struggle runs deep and it sometimes suffocates him and he’s lost within it. I know it’s not easy (I understand it feels impossible) but I watched him in action with this tiny, vulnerable creature and churning within my heart, was the most excruciating desperation for him to turn that rescue mission inward, towards himself.

It sounds very selfish of me but I did not like the churning; my capacity for worry about my ex husband is firmly at its limit. All day, I had my mum’s wisdom in my head and as I considered it in relation to the story of the saved fledgling, maybe what I can take from this parable/ lesson (call it what you will) is hope.

Hope exists within the moment; it doesn’t try to cling onto something which is no more; nor does it look too far forward, attempting to control a situation to make it more palatable; it accepts & anticipates something positive and it’s genuinely a better state of mind for all of us.

Stay hopeful, stay strong, stay safe.