Serenity Happens....

Merry Meet and Blessings Family and Friends!

"It wasn't supposed to happen this way".

A friend and I wept with the truth carried by those words. They echoed a sentiment my heart has come to know all too well.

Bad things shouldn't happen to good people. Bad shit should only happen to bad people. Yeah, right! Perhaps in a perfect World.

Bad things happen. Period. I really don't believe that we can necessarily contribute those things to bad luck, falling into bad karma, negative magick. To assume that our Deities are putting us through tests of strength or endurance is nothing more than arrogance. I suspect that the Gods have better things to do than to indulge the over inflated egos of mere mortals.

Let's face it though, when something goes horribly wrong in our lives, we often feel the need to lay the blame somewhere, because the possibility that awful things just randomly happen...would be inconceivable.

My mother and sister died within 6 months of each other and while they had both suffered from long term serious and terminal illnesses, that knowledge brought me only minimal comfort. And just when I didn't think things could possibly get worse, my Dad was diagnosed with cancer and within 15 months, I had lost my entire family.

"What the fuck?!", I thought", totally convinced that I was being punished for something I done, that I was cursed or that it was retribution for some huge karmic debt held over from this, as well as every one of my past lives! I remember thinking, "I must have been a horrible person in another life" It wasn't supposed to happen this way! Or perhaps...it was.

I truly believe that there are reasons for everything we experience and for those in our lives that experience it with us. That is not to say that our lives are predestined, only that there are things that we need to experience, directly or indirectly, either for our own personal growth, to prepare us to deal with some future event or perhaps to help others do the same. These things are just part of the soul's evolutionary process; those lessons that are necessary for the next phase of the soul's journey. So what lesson came to me from all this? Well, I learned that, when I had to be, I was stronger than I ever believed humanly possible.

The energy we expend trying to figure out why bad things happen or who or what is responsible is the ultimate exercise in futility. I've since learned that when when I'm presented with a difficult life situation or worse, one that sucks to a mind blowing degree, the first thing I do is look at it from the best and worst case scenarios. Then, I learn everything I possibly can to prepare for both. After all, knowledge is power! I concentrate all the energy that would have been wasted on trying to figure out who to blame, on what I can do to make the situation better. This immediately puts the control back in my hands. If there isn't anything I can do from a mundane standpoint, I consider what I might be able to do spiritually or magickally and I do it! And...I don't fuck around! I think this is where magick is monumentally beneficial and so much better than sitting around worrying about the outcome while merely hoping for the best.

Still, there comes a time when we need to accept that what, "wasn't supposed to happen this way" did, and may be beyond the scope of what we can influence without Divine Intervention. I believe that therein lies the lesson.

When I was a kid, my Mom taught me a little prayer for those times when I need to be reminded of this lesson.

"Hecate, grant me the serenity to accept the the things I can not change, bring your power to my magick to change the things I can and your wisdom to know the difference".

OK, well, maybe not EXACTLY the way Mom taught me! :)


In Darkness, Light!


Tracy