When I first came to Al Anon I used to say the Serenity prayer wrong  I would say it like this "God, Grant me the Serenity to change the things I cannot change.." It still makes me laugh because I think it was just a little too representative of my mindset when I first stepped into the rooms.  Acceptance is something I have to work on every minute of every day.  When I can accept things life is smoother.  It's so much easier to live life on life's terms but I can easily fall back into trying to change the things I cannot change.  I had a great Christmas and new years I was in such a peaceful space and I felt that I was doing really well most of the time at accepting the people in my life for who they are instead of wanting to change them.  This morning hit and I am back at work and someone did something that made my morning harder (even though they were just trying to help) and I was in a rage.  A total rage.  I couldn't accept the fact that even though I had done everything I could before I left for the holidays to make this morning smooth it didn't go smoothly.  Then I had this conversation with a friend where I was trying to change the dynamics of the friendship instead of accepting it.  I'm starting to learn that when my feathers get ruffled and I'm all huffy and angry it's usually me trying to change something instead of accepting it for what it is.  Sometimes acceptance comes really easily and other times it's a long drawn out process for me.  What I have learned is that if I can try to accept something first before taking action it makes a huge difference in my life.  So the rage has subsided (and I kept it mostly to myself).  I can accept that the person who made my morning more difficult wasn't doing it to hurt me she was doing it to try to help me.  She realized what she did and apologized and I was able to accept it and tell her I knew she was only trying to help.  Thanks to the program my relationships everywhere are improving.