serenity. courage. wisdom.

Watching a friend struggle with something she wants so much but is clearly not for her -- it's painful, and frustrating. The thing is, i don't even think that this thing she wants so much is as good as she thinks it is in the first place. It's frightening, how blind she can be to the signs -- clear, obvious, in-her-face signs -- that this thing is simply not meant to be. And in the process, she's just getting more and more hurt, allowing herself to get more and more hurt.
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i guess one thing you realise after a while is that there's only so much you can do to help, so much you can say. At some point you just have to leave people to live their own lives, learn their own lessons -- even if it seems so clear that they're headed in the wrong direction. Things get to the point where they cannot see and will not listen, and the only thing that will make them see is for them to come to the end of the road themselves, for the journey to reach its logical, painful conclusion ...
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Life lessons for me to learn, i guess. Perseverence is good -- but blind obstinacy is not. If all the signs are pointing in the other direction, if proceeding consistently causes more pain than otherwise, then it's probably time to stop, reflect, and, if necessary, change direction.

i guess, it comes down to this:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change; courage to change the things i can; and wisdom to know the difference.
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Reinhold Niebuhr was a very wise man.
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