Serenity and Spirited Away

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things that I can

And the wisdom to know the difference.

I've been mouthing off the Serenity Prayer a lot lately, because I remember in 2009 that was my mantra. I would say those three lines (there is more to it than those three lines you know) over and over again to start my day, in the car, when I'm inching through traffic. I remember still how peaceful that prayer made me feel and how great my 2009 became. It was a wonderful year filled with good stuff.

Anyway, I still have the prayer posted in my office since I put it there in 2009 and every now and then I say it aloud, those three lines only.

I feel that this year I'm more stressed out than usual. The month-long vacation that I took over the summer did not bring me the rejuvenation that I was expecting despite traveling to exotic India and bonding with family in Bangladesh. My soul/spirit remains restless. I thought I needed to be reminded to listen to the advice of the serenity prayer once again.

I believe I am so blessed to be stressed and I cannot shake off this feeling of being overwhelmed. I need the serenity prayer now more than ever.

On another note, I don't know how to segue into this but the group that I'm a part of at church that would host a monthly activity after church hours held its first one over the weekend. On Saturday we had our Movie Night. Upon the suggestion of another committee member we featured SPIRITED AWAY, which is an Anime animation. I have not heard of the movie before; but a few other members of the church has heard of it and loved it. We thought it's fine choice to start our community night as we're calling it.

In line with the Japanese theme of the movie, we served Japanese food - teriyaki chicken with steamed veggies and rice, both brown and white, with choice of green tea or sake. Our initial gathering had 26 people and the table setup in the narthex was just lovely. We even used table cloths, real cutlery and real plates. We have a dishwasher at church so there was no problem with washing all those dishes.

If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It's quite riveting and very good. It won many awards including the Oscars for 2002 Animated Film. I believe it's suitable for little kids. The only thing about it is kids might be scared at the scene where the parents turned into pigs, but with guidance I'm sure the little kids will like it as well. It is animated.