Serenity

I am sometimes extraordinarily bad at sleeping. Sometimes this happens when I think too much.

I have also started praying for miracles again (although in another sense, I never really stopped). Sometimes it works. You never know. Worked for me 7 years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago (on my behalf, as I was too little to know what "praying" meant at the time). Might work again.

That last bit isn't quite right; the phrasing seems to imply some kind of Deus Ex Machina deigning to grant a human's wish. I think the real miracles - and these happen every day - happen inside people. Things happen. Sometimes we can't change them. But we can decide how we're going to react, what we're going to do about it - so the thing to ask for becomes, as the old prayer goes:

Grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things that I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference.

I tend to view the world as hackable. There are plenty of things in the world that can be changed. The flip side of this is that my serenity is often lacking. Like I said, sometimes I think too much. Sometimes this makes me sleep too little. But I believe that prayers do get heard, and that they're answered - sometimes not in the way that you were hoping for, but always in the way they ought to be.

This post may be an indication that it's time for me to go to bed. Soon. I want to finish reading first.