What I Cannot Change

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference."
This prayer, kept on the wall in Billy's optometry office is something I learned when I was really young. My grandmother gave me a piece of wood with the words inscribed on it and I hung it on my wall. There it sat for quite some time. I read it over a few times, but I never really considered what it meant. I know what it literally meant, but I didn't bother trying to apply it to my own life.
I'm the kind of person who always wants to change things. When something goes wrong, I am the one to fix it. When there is a problem, I have to come up with a solution. I guess it's just the way I've learned to be. There is something I have learned though, and that is that I can't change everything and I can't change other people. Circumstances will not change simply because I want them to, and i have had to accept that, hard as it was. It's not always easy to accept something like that, but  it is unchangeable.
I think this kind of applies to Billy in that he learns to live out these words in his life as the novel progresses.He doesn't question the existence of the Tralfamadorians or their planet (he does, however, question why he was chosen). He understands that things will be as they are. That is something I strive for in my life, to live out the truth of these words. it would be a whole lot easier that way. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...