Serenity at the South Rim
by Cheryl McClure
Title
Serenity at the South Rim
Artist
Cheryl McClure
Medium
Photograph - Photograph - Digital Art
Description
There was a condor flying in the area where it had been nesting at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The image has been modified to enhance the peaceful mood of the day and it is a perfect fit for the serenity prayer.
California condors were placed on the federal Endangered Species list in 1967. Only 22 condors were known to remain in 1982, while today the world population exceeds 400, with over 225 condors living in the wild. Approximately 75 condors reside in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. In Arizona, reintroduction is being conducted under a special provision of the Endangered Species Act that allows for the designation of a nonessential experimental population. Under this designation (referred to as the 10(j) rule) the protections for an endangered species are relaxed, providing greater flexibility for management of a reintroduction program.
Since December of 1996, program personnel have released condors every year. Each condor is fitted with radio transmitters and is monitored daily by field biologists.
The Serenity Prayer is the common name for an originally untitled prayer by the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). It has been adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs.
Though clearly circulating in oral form earlier, the earliest established date for a written form of the prayer is Niebuhr's inclusion of it in a sermon in 1943, followed closely by its inclusion in a Federal Council of Churches (FCC) book for army chaplains and servicemen in 1944. Niebuhr himself did not publish the Serenity Prayer until 1951, in one of his magazine columns, although it had previously appeared under his name. The prayer is cited both by Niebuhr and by Niebuhr's daughter, Elisabeth Sifton. Sifton thought that he had first written it in 1943, although Niebuhr's wife wrote in an unpublished memorandum that it had been written in 1941 or '42, adding that it may have been used in prayers as early as 1934. Niebuhr himself was quoted in the January 1950 Grapevine as saying the prayer "may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don't think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself." In his book Niebuhr recalls that his prayer was circulated by the FCC and later by the United States armed forces. Niebuhr's versions of the prayer were always printed as a single prose sentence; printings that set out the prayer as three lines of verse modify the author's original version.
The original, attributed to Niebuhr, is:
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
Uploaded
November 21st, 2013
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Comments (16)
Debra Martz
Wonderful work with the pastel color and Serenity Prayer. I saw my first Condor at the Navajo Bridge in Arizona last August.
Barbara Chichester
CONGRATULATIONS your outstanding artwork is FEATURED on the highly viewed Art Group: MOTIVATION MEDITATION INSPIRATION! Out of of hundreds of pieces of artwork received daily to review and choose from, your work has been chosen because of it's excellence!