The English Oxford Dictionary defines acceptance as Willingness to tolerate a difficult situation. The Serenity Prayer asks us to ACCEPT THE THINGS WE CAN NOT CHANGE. Nowhere in either the Oxford Dictionary definition or The Serenity Prayer does it say that we have to like anything, merely tolerate or abide by accepting that thought as fact. When I finally really understood this, it lifted most of the remaining guilty feelings that I had about a lot of different circumstances, not the least being the 1st Step which states that we ADMITTED we were powerless over alcohol and our lives had become unmanageable. That did not take one thing away from the importance of the 1st Step, it just added some deeper understanding. I knew that Step 1 applied to me but I sure didn’t like it. Everything has to start somewhere, hence the title Step 1. Knowing something like the fact that I was powerless over anything from the outside was unthinkable to me, even though I felt powerless over my own life and didn’t know what to do. So, now that I had admitted that I was powerless over alcohol and my life had become unmanageable, I was in a new quandary. I didn’t like this new feeling that was coming over me and then was introduced to acceptance. It took my sponsors, some people who had been just as mean as I had been, to explain acceptance and, when it finally clicked, I got immediate relief and discovered that there was a way out. What a concept! I was discovering more and more immediate reliefs as I continued working my program to the best of my ability. These ugly, semi-toothless people who sat me down, shut me up, and not only told but also showed me how it was working for them. I saw them being Happy, Joyous, and Free, even when I knew that their living circumstances were less than ideal. They told me first that they would love me until I could love myself AND THEY DID EXACTLY THAT. Wow! I continued to be blown away by what I was learning from the Program of AA. As soon as I began ACCEPTING what I was learning, I, too, became Happy, Joyous, and Free and have not chosen to go back. I say chosen because, as long as I don’t drink or drug, I have choices and can choose at each and every crossroad that life puts in front of me. This is a very simple program for very complicated folks. This is how the Spirituality that this amazing program teaches was doing what I never had before. What, really, do you want? Do you want to be Happy, Joyous, and Free all the time, each and every day? Then COD, come on down, accept the Program and all of its principles into your life 24/7/365 and just know that it is yours for the taking.