Still Waters Counseling

Effective Help from Caring, Experienced Professionals

Spirituality and Recovery

Recently a friend of mine forwarded an email to me. You know the kind. The kind of email that has inspiration, the kind of email that normally I might choose to read, but not pass on to five or seven people within the next five minutes or whatever the requirement is in order for me to have some wonderful event or wish come true within a specified time limit.

 However, this email made me think. But let me digress for just a moment. As a therapist who works with people in recovery, the serenity prayer as well as the concept of a higher power, God as you define him/her, are parts of my daily language. Let me include the serenity prayer here. 

             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. 

 I recite this in order to make my next point.

 A basic tenet of the serenity prayer and recovery is acceptance. Acceptance that one has a problem and the need for help; acceptance that one does not have control over everything; acceptance that the way one has been doing things no longer works and must change in order to live. 

 Along with the serenity prayer, the twelve steps are a basic foundation to recovery for many individuals. In brief the first three steps are:

1.      I can’t.

2.      He can.

3.      I think I’ll let him.

Again, I refer to these basic concepts of recovery to relate to the email. Life is, by definition, change. Also by virtue of definition, change has a way of escaping attempts to be kept under control. And for those persons inclined or tempted to try to maintain control of their own destiny or others around them, life and life changes as such have the potential to create anxiety, stress, and/ or other unpleasant emotions or conditions. Many times the efforts to control fail and in some cases, those times are when some people will choose to seek counseling in order to deal with “life”.

Ok, now, for the email that my friend forwarded to me. I am including only the poem here. Unfortunately the author was not included with the email. I would like to give the author credit for these words that created such a beautiful and inspirational picture. 

It’s only a tiny rosebud

A flower of God’s design;

But I cannot unfold the petals

With these clumsy hands of mine.

The secret of unfolding flowers

Is not known to such as I.

God opens this flower so sweetly,

Then, in my hands, they die.

If I cannot unfold a rosebud,

The flower of God’s design,

Then how can I have the wisdom

To unfold this life of mine?

So, I’ll trust in Him for leading

Each moment of my day.

I will look to Him for His guidance

Each step of the Pilgrim’s way.

The pathway that lies before me

Only my Heavenly Father knows.

I’ll trust him to unfold the moments,

Just as He unfolds the rose.

This was not a poem specifically about recovery or the serenity prayer. This is about life. For those inclined to work within a spiritual framework for recovery (clients and therapists alike), it seems this poem could provide some powerful imagery…

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