“We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.” — Alcoholics Anonymous (1939) · Chapter 6 · Into Action
From the Promises in Chapter 6 of the 1939 first edition.
“Comprehend” is precise: most of us could define serenity for years before we ever felt it — a vocabulary word from a prayer, said fast in a circle. Then one ordinary afternoon arrives with nothing wrong in it, and you realize the word had contents all along. Peace, it turns out, isn’t the absence of problems. It’s the absence of the war you were running about them.
The Promises