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Natural Awakenings Central New Jersey

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The Serenity Prayer

Mar 31, 2020 12:20PM ● By Joe Dunne

Dear loyal Natural Awakenings readers, 

Let me take a moment to share with you lessons I have learned while making my way through life. I hope this helps. 

The turning stones of life happen. Unexpected change can shock us and sometimes paralyze us with confusion. Our direction, our plan, our future is altered by change. 

The trigger of change may go unnoticed or is thought to be trivial, yet suddenly unwelcome change happens. There are several responses we can choose—we can worry, short circuit ourselves, create internal and external panic. Or we can choose acceptance. 

Controlling what we can control, dealing with the rest, and making decisions one step at a time. Letting go, surrendering to what is, and as they say dealing with it.  

How we deal with it matters.  

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

Being in recovery for over 30 years, today I still rely on the Serenity Prayer that helped save my life. Many additional principles and people contributed to putting the puzzle of me back together, but the Serenity Prayer was my rock. It quiets my mind from projecting off into the future of fear. It comforts me with its simplicity and common sense. In some ways it is my foundation of thinking, not only in my everyday living, but especially in a crisis. I say it a thousand times a day when my mind wants to go to worry, fear, panic. For years I have said it every night before bed, rarely missing my prayer of gratitude and this simple but powerful prayer.

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

People saved my life by helping me, by nurturing me, by encouraging me, but most of all by loving me.  Now more than ever it is a time for us to show the strength, the compassion, the will to love ourselves through this change. 

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

In peace, love, good health, and much gratitude,

Joe Dunne

Publisher


In-Print publisher's letter New Jersey April 2020 Serenity Prayer COVID-19 Holisitic Health
Tick Talk

Spring officially sprung on March 21. We have turned our clocks ahead. We are looking forward to warm winds, sunny skies and the smell of fresh cut grass. The daffodils and tulips have recently bloomed and we are just starting with the yard work that comes with the warmer weather.  Sadly, another season has started ramping up.  Tick season.

•             The best form of protection is prevention. Educating oneself about tick activity and how our behaviors overlap with tick habitats is the first step.

•             According to the NJ DOH, in 2022 Hunterdon County led the state with a Lyme disease incidence rate of 426 cases per 100,000 people. The fact is ticks spend approximately 90% of their lives not on a host but aggressively searching for one, molting to their next stage or over-wintering. This is why a tick remediation program should be implemented on school grounds where NJ DOH deems high risk for tick exposure and subsequent attachment to human hosts.

•             Governor Murphy has signed a bill that mandates tick education in NJ public schools. See this for the details.  Tick education must now be incorporated into K-12 school curriculum. See link:

https://www.nj.gov/education/broadcasts/2023/sept/27/TicksandTick-BorneIllnessEducation.pdf

•             May is a great month to remind the public that tick activity is in full swing. In New Jersey, there are many tickborne diseases that affect residents, including Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, Powassan, and Spotted Fever Group Rickettsiosis.

•             For years, the focus has mainly been about protecting ourselves from Lyme disease. But other tick-borne diseases are on the rise in Central Jersey. An increase of incidence of Babesia and Anaplasma are sidelining people too. These two pathogens are scary because they effect our blood cells. Babesia affects the red blood cells and Anaplasma effects the white blood cells.

•             Ticks can be infected with more than one pathogen. When you contract Lyme it is possible to contract more than just that one disease. This is called a co-infection. It is super important to pay attention to your symptoms. See link.

https://twp.freehold.nj.us/480/Disease-Co-Infection

A good resource from the State:

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/topics/tickborne.shtml

 

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