Happy Sunday! Egidio from Through Brazilian Eyes is hosting this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and we’re exploring serenity.

According to the dictionary, the word Serenity is defined as “the state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.”

However, this was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the word Serenity.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

This has been hanging in the dining room ever since my mom and I moved to our current neighborhood. My mom bought it in a thrift shop way back when.

It took me a long while to really understand what this meant and it didn’t sink in until I went to therapy 3 years ago when my therapist asked me to list the things I can change and the things I can’t and just focus on the things I can change. It was in that moment when I realized that I should stop trying to fix the little things that were wrong in my life and focus on the good.

3 years later, this is still a work-in-progress and maybe it’ll be something I’ll work on for the rest of my life.

I was diagnosed with GAD – generalized anxiety disorder – in college but as the same as with all my other health problems, it’s not severe enough to be treated with medication.

I tried meditation but that only made it worse. That was when I picked up the camera and began taking photos. It was the thing that worked, it calmed this monster in my head that’s constantly playing out bad scenarios. Some of my favorite photos were taken when I feel serene, when that monster has been temporarily muted.