Serenity Prayer

The other day when Steve & I were on a walk he said something that made me mad. Really mad. Madder than I ever usually get at him.

I stomped away from him and I looked down at the trail. I then saw my ring. It wasn't my "real" wedding ring: the one with the diamonds. It was just a gold band I'd bought for myself at WalMart when Matt was a baby and I was worried about scratching him with my diamond ring. I remembered that it had only cost me $20. I had the uncontrollable urge to take it off and throw it .... so I did.

It was just like in a movie: I saw it spiral around and around, silhouetted in the pink, sunset sky, twirling in slow motion and then a final plink as it landed far away in a clump of bushes. I have to admit that it was very satisfying.

A couple of days passed and I finally cooled off. I found that I really missed having a wedding ring on, so I put back on my behemoth. I love my original wedding ring, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it feels big and bulky. So yesterday I looked for a ring at WalMart; I just knew they'd have a plain gold band for cheap. Well, they didn't. The cheapest was a super thin ring for $38. So I decided to keep looking.

Steve & I were at Shopko tonight to get him some shoes, so I decided to look for a ring there. There were no gold bands to be seen in the jewelry case, so I started looking at different alternatives. I thought two hearts looped together would be good, or maybe one with circles entwined to represent eternity. While I was looking so was Steve. He found one in my size that had the Serenity Prayer on it. I laughed and he laughed. It seemed pretty fitting! I tried it on to make sure I really am a size 7, but with no real intentions of buying it... and it got stuck. There was the plastic card with a little plastic loop keeping the ring on the plastic card. No matter how hard I pulled on the ring, it just wasn't coming off, so I told Steve I'd have to buy it, there simply wasn't a choice. He took his leatherman tool out of his pocket and cut off the plastic loop to free the ring. It was then that I fully read what the ring said. Come to find out, it didn't have the whole prayer on it, it just reads "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change."

At first I felt silly for having the Serenity Prayer on what I would use as a wedding ring, but the more I think about it I think that *every* wedding ring should have that statement on it! Because let's face it, we can't change each other, and by the time we realize that fact, we are stuck. Not that it is necessarily a bad thing to be stuck, but we are stuck all the same.

After wearing the ring for a few hours now, I have the feeling that it wasn't just fate that Steve found this ring and that it got stuck. It is simply the perfect ring, and I think the next time I get the urge to throw it (because I know that there *will* be a next time), the message will make all the difference.