A Quest For Peace

I heard this the first time at an Alanon meeting. "Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm." This has been attributed to the Bible, as a Native American adage, the AA Big Book...I found several different sources, but where it originated is not important. For me, it is the message. I am reaching for that serenity, right now.

I feel like I have been living in the middle of a war zone. Around me, the bursting bombs of the National Adoption Awareness Farce, canine cancer and loss, the Tea Bagger fear and bigotry election results...are all a cacophony of ear-splitting noise.The sounds I hear set my teeth on edge like fingernails on a blackboard. When it comes to that Adoption Awareness thing, I cringe to think this dissonance will go on for a solid month. At least the election is over. I wish the talking heads on TV would get that message.

A friend and I were talking about how neither of us turned on the news on Wednesday. I guess my hope was nothing against the cynical "I knew this was going to happen" of those pragmatic thinkers who were prepared for this national disaster. Just like the GOP spin doctors spent a lot of effort to make "liberal" a bad word, now they are waving the red flag of "Socialism" in the face of the fearful faithful. They grabbed the Tea Partiers and used them like a two-dollar whore. Yeah, yeah...I know. This was bound to happen...conservative backlash and all that...inexperienced president..Watch out, here comes Palin, blah, blah, blah.

OK...then let's see to the storm shelters. I find peace by knowing I am doing my best. I find peace by knowing I am speaking my truth. And I find peace by having lived long enough to know that things always change. And I find peace by periodically withdrawing from the fray and concentrating on loved ones and things I love to do.

So, politically, I have done my civic duty and, though it didn't turn out the way I had hoped, I voted my conscience and I have nothing for which to apologize or to regret.

I am wearing my ribbon when I go out and answering the questions as they come. I am working on another letter to the editor of the Orlando Sentinel which will either be rejected again or hidden among the hymns of praise to adoption that fill the pages of that publication during November. But, again, I will have done as my conscience led me and will have nothing to regret, there, either.

In our house, right now, we have both mourning and joy, and that combination is enough with which to deal today.

Oh, and sticking pins into my Sarah Palin doll takes up some of my time..... May a large moose run her down and step on her vocal chords. And no, I am not ashamed of myself for writing that.

Cackle!!!!!