The Serenity of Walking the Tao

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.
(The Serenity Prayer)

The energy exchange of people can be studied every day. I love observing seating arrangements in company gatherings, and although they sometimes seem to be completely random, they always set the agenda in advance. The other day I was pushed into a corner spot by a colleague which always tells me that I am just participating and not leading the discussion. Indeed, when we discussed personnel decisions, I wanted to speak up on behalf of a colleague but I realized quickly that it was a lost cause - the outcome was already predetermined before the meeting started. I am sure that I would have found that out on my own in the meeting, but I kind of already knew that I had a good opportunity to shut up based on the seating arrangement. The person who proposed the agenda also sat at the head of the table, while everyone else was sitting around him. In the Western set-up at least, this symbolizes that the person at the head of the table is in the driving seat and, as it turned out, he had already decided on the outcome. So I didn't need the courage to change things, because I already had the wisdom to know that nothing could be changed about the outcome. The Tao gives you that wisdom, just study the energy dynamics for yourself next time you are in a similar setting.