Prayer

I received a gift, a pocket-sized book, “Prayers, New and Old.” I took it along to visit a man in trouble, some contretemps with housemates and a run-in with the law. He vented. I listened until he ran out of steam and looked at the floor. I asked, “Can we pray?” He nodded. I opened my hitherto unused prayer book to a random page. From that page, we shared these words: “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.”