"God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change to things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
Demi released the hands of the boy and girl next to her.
"Okay, today we're on step two." Demi, who is this weeks group leader, started. "Finding your higher power. Remember, it can't be an actual person although it can be a trait you admire about a person." the group of teenagers nodded amongst themselves. Demi's favorite thing about these meetings is that it's run by teens, the adults were observing and occasionally helping from the sidelines.
"Can it be a tree?" a girl in the group asked.
"It can't be a tree. That's weird." a boy said.
"No, no. What does a tree mean to you, hun?" Demi asked her. The girl thought for a moment before speaking.
"It means safety, and shelter. It also means happiness because I spent a lot of my childhood in a tree house."
"Well then, I guess your higher power is a tree." Demi smiled at her, the boy from before thought this over.
"So it can be anything?" Demi nodded. "Then why can't it be a person?"
"It can't be a person because we don't last forever, people die and if the person who died was your higher power then that means they let you down in a way. Or they could've done something really bad and you would've lost hope in them, people are unreliable I guess."
"Oh, that makes sense... What's your higher power?" all eyes were on Demi now, she wasn't scared though. She's used to this.
"My higher power is music." she stated simply.
"Why?" Kevin asked, he smiled knowingly while Demi narrowed her eyes at him. He knew damn well why.
"Because music is a symphony of life, every challenge we face is another note added to our symphony. In the end we get something beautiful, our song. The best thing about that is no two songs are the same and no one else hears this song the way you do."
"That's deep." one of the older guys said, causing the group to laugh.
"Okay guys, calm down. We still have the questions." Demi said, though she was also laughing. "Okay, okay. When's a time you can look to your higher power?" she read off the paper. A younger boy raised his hand.
"When my friends try to pressure me into smoking again."
"And why's that?" Demi asked the boy.
"Because my higher power is strength and bravery, you really can't have one without the other, anyway I'll have the strength to resist and the bravery to stand up for myself." Demi smiled.
"That's really good, don't you ever forget your higher power okay?" he nodded hapilly. The discussion moved on to other teens while Demi sat deep in thought.
I'll look to my higher power when my uncle tries to hit me again.
***
"Hey Demi!" the blonde turned around to see her best friend Kevin running up to her. "Haven't heard from you, what's happening?"
"Nothing, just uncle problems." she assured him.
"Uncle problems? Anything you need to talk about?" he asked, concerned for her.
"Nah, I'm good. I actually made a friend who I can talk about this stuff with." she smiled as she thought of Selena.
"Ooh, a friend or a friend?" he wriggled his eyebrows.
