Remembering Grace
I dedicate this post to my friend Susie B. 

What is your relationship with “grace” and how does it show up in your everyday life?

From my past experience, grace is what we come to know, to truly understand and embrace, only after we have tried everything in our own power – forcing, pushing, shouting, stealing, crying, lying, deceiving, grieving and otherwise shoving our way through the world, resisting the ways of the Universe and ignoring the powerful forces beyond our own; until we have absolutely nothing left to give, no fight left in us and find ourselves on bended knees begging for help; when finally, and only with a sincere and pleading heart we surrender – does grace step in.

Grace, in her infinite wisdom is not taking any chances! It’s as if she wants to make absolutely sure she will be well received and so, she waits ever so patiently, until we are in our darkest hour….or so it seems.

Grace, that which is operating in our lives at all times; that which is the moral compass of our consciousness and the compassionate compass of our heart; that which is the all forgiving mother to all sentient beings; that which is soft, and beautiful, and sweet and found in the familiar eye of our fellow man; found also in the flock of geese at sunrise and the shooting star in the dark blue of night; the sense that all is right, even though it may be uncomfortable; the knowing that there is a greater mystery beyond our limited ability to understand…and trusting in this, that all is exactly as it should be……this is what I have come to know, as Grace.

Grace, in all it’s forms and by whatever name you choose to call her, is the ultimate entity we lean into when times are tough beyond reason and we know not where to turn, and as we slowly come to realize, she is always there. We only have to ask and to look and to be willing to see beyond our own expectation. But, she is there during good times too!

Grace is there during your morning coffee, your commute, your dinner with friends, your marriage, your child’s birth….she is there. She’s there while you’re cleaning your house or canning your peaches or counting your pennies, she is there. Grace is everywhere only, we have to ask and to look and to be willing to see beyond our own expectation……and there she is.

Her love is unbiased, generous, abundant and available at all times….but we forget. We forget to look, to ask, to let go of our stubborn ways. We think we know what is best and we force. Oh how we force ourselves’ and our views onto others….as if there couldn’t possibly be another side to the story, another approach to the problem. Who do we think we are really? So bold are we to demand our needs be met first, our children first, our happiness first, our complete satisfaction first above and beyond all others! This is turning away from grace, not walking with her, shunning her and sentencing her to the darkest recesses of our better selves…dusty and full of cob webs, with blankets thrown all over that which we do not wish to see…..refuse to see really, yet know is true.

Grace is at our Thanksgiving table of course, but to think of her only once a year is not doing her justice……or ourselves for that matter. Imagine a life where grace is with you everyday. Where you take her everywhere you go. Where that feeling of appreciation and love and abundance and generosity, that feeling you have while sitting at your Thanksgiving table just before you begin your feast, the one when you look into the faces of all the people you hold dear and it makes you wonder how you were so lucky to be sitting there at that very moment; that feeling of such wonder and awe and inspiration at the very life you have been given, you know, the one that has the power to change the lives of so many if you were to actually take it out into the world and share it with others, that same feeling that could actually change all of humanity if you were to carry it in your hearts at all times and not just during this special designated time of year, imagine that feeling being yours…..not just one day, but everyday…..even today!

Remembering grace is all you have to do. It is so simple. We make it so hard. It is unnatural……our hard ways.

Grace lives in your heart. Not outside of you, nor beyond you. You are grace! You only have to remember.