Simple Grace

Today I am grateful for a good meal shared with others and for a nice evening to enjoy a baseball game.

I am thinking about the family, about a mile down the road from us, whose garage and home were heavily damaged by fire yesterday afternoon. I don't know them, but my prayers go out to them. How quickly things can change the course of one's day or life.

The quote in my gratitude journal yesterday was:

"Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live."
         (Jackie Windspear)

Grace. I have had a hard time understanding what grace really is, but when I stopped trying so hard to figure it out, I realized I already knew. Grace has been defined for me in many ways, but two of my favorites are: 1) a gift unearned and 2) realizing God's (Higher Power's, the Universe's) presence in my life.

Certainly, it's good to say grace before meals, but if that is the only time we say thanks, we are missing the boat. Not just a boat, a veritable ocean liner full of gifts.

Gratitude and grace go hand in hand. There is so much I have done nothing to deserve or no work to provide. Do I have anything to do with having air to breathe? Did I have any part in that beautiful sunrise? But I honor it all by noticing it and giving thanks for it. Both grace and gratitude bring humility and a sense of being a small part of a much bigger whole. Both slow me down and make me more likely to notice others and what they might need or want.

I work daily to make gratitude a way of life, and in so doing, I find grace. I have to get up each day and start over, but that is a promise to me, not drudgery.  For that, I am truly grateful.

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