Welcome to the booklet called Change We Can. What you will learn, hopefully, will be More than you thought. “More will be revealed” implies that as you read and ponder these concepts of change, filter them through the lens of the serenity prayer and contemplate what this means. Contemplation means to meditate on the concepts of acceptance, courage and wisdom. Intuitive knowing will naturally result as we ponder the concepts put forward by the "Five things we cannot change by David Richo."
The primary intention of this thesis is Compassion. To explain this, let’s use the metaphor of an operating system on a computer. Most people seem to use Windows and there are many versions of this, as some of us know too well. Never-the-less, an operating system is essential to help the computer function; this is like an “orientation.” There are programs that operate on this system. A program like Word or Works helps us write down our thoughts electronically (i.e. word processor).
Think of the serenity prayer (or any slogan or motto you prefer) as our operating system. "Acceptance, courage and wisdom" (key words of the serenity prayer) is an operating system and Compassion is the program that we use to help with our word processing or any task for that matter. Compassion, as an orientation, is the lens through which we see the world. This is a simple approach for relating. It sounds simple yet we tend to complicate matters by intellectualizing and letting our ego (easing God out) make it into a really big deal (i.e. difficult).
Let me indulge one more metaphor; think of “sin” as a virus. Most everyone knows how a virus can destroy a computer operating system. Therefore, we have virus protection. Think of Compassionate Communication as virus protection. When we run our program of Compassion we are protected from the evil virus and we put up a firewall that keeps us safe.
My request of you is: please use your new "eye-glasses" of serenity and compassion as you ponder the "Five things we cannot change" (and the happiness we find by embracing them). Mindfully explore the concepts while reflecting whole heartedly, how we can integrate them into our lives. As Muhatma Ghandi said, "Be the change in the world that you want."
David Richo Ph.D., a psychotherapist, has written a book called Five Things We Cannot Change, copywrite 2006 (and the happiness we find by embracing them.) Those five things are: “Everything changes and ends; things do not always go according to plan; life is not always fair; pain (suffering) is part of life; and people are not loving and loyal all the time.”