| The daughter of two drug addicts, Liz Murray grew up in poverty in the Bronx, often hungry and often living in the streets. When Murray was 11, her mother tried to exchange a coat for drugs, but the dealer refused the offer, told her to get some help, and gave her a medallion with the Serenity Prayer on it. Her mother ignored the Narcotics Anonymous token, but Murray tucked it away and looked at it from time to time, treating it as a novelty rather than as a pathway to a better life.
Murray was 15, homeless, and a school dropout when her mother died from AIDS. Shortly afterward, still homeless, she looked at a worn and treasured photo of her mother and saw her own future. “Like my mother, I was always saying ‘I’ll fix my life someday.’ My time was now or maybe never,” she said.
It was then she remembered the medallion. She reread the words inscribed there and realized: “This is something I can actually change. I have the wisdom to do it.” She reenrolled in high school, and though still living part of this time hand-to-mouth and homeless, she graduated at the top of her class, won a major scholarship, and gained admission to Harvard.
From there, she became an inspirational speaker and a successful author. Perhaps best of all from her perspective, she is married with two children and has created the home she never knew.
“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.”
Known as the Serenity Prayer, this 25-word petition is offered up daily in countless Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings and other 12-step recovery programs.
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