Plain Old
Grace
“It's
unearned love—the love that goes before, that greets us on the way.
It's the help you receive when you have no bright ideas left, when
you are empty and desperate and have discovered that your best
thinking and most charming charm have failed you. Grace is the light
or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated
place and puts you with others who are just as startled and
embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there.”
Anne
Lamott
Anne Lamott's description
of grace is the very best I have seen. She knows this definition as
well as anyone on this planet, because grace saved her life, as it
has (or will) all of us at some point. That's what I don't believe we
understand about grace, at least I didn't. That it is unearned love.
In fact, we cannot do anything to earn it. We can earn many other
things—money, accolades, awards, notoriety, fame—life-saving
grace, however, is a gift that we don't deserve, and it's given to us
anyway.
Having just celebrated
another birthday, I realize that I am here on Planet Earth by grace
alone. From day-one of this long life—born an asthmatic baby in a
rural Appalachian town, and hospitalized for most of the first two
years of my life—grace has always picked me up and set me down
where I would be cared for. I don't understand it, but I'm still
here, so there must be a reason. I was talking with my cousins, Jerry
and Susan, on Wednesday, saying that I hope to live as long as I have
a contribution to make. Don't we all—but someone else rolls those
dice. We don't get to decide how long or how well we will live—grace
does that. I can do my part by taking care of myself, but beyond
that, it's up to Spirit to decide. And so it is with all of us.
Even though we can't
direct grace, can't call it down upon us or anyone else, we can be on
the look-out for it. We can recognize it when we see it, when we feel
it. Grace doesn't usually come in large and ostentatious packages.
It's small, and quiet. It shows up as an unsolicited and unexpected
gift. Some little flash of beauty, a child's voice singing, a
hummingbird at your feeder, a slip of music that pulls back an entire
memory. Something as small as a smile from a stranger—we learn to
appreciate this in old age, as we become invisible to most people.
When someone looks us in the eye and smiles, it's grace. Just think!
You, yourself, can be grace to an older person just by seeing
them and acknowledging them with a smile. In fact, we can be
grace every day, and doing so makes us feel as good as the person on
the receiving end.
Today, keep an eye open
for the grace in your own life, and pass it on to someone else. I
think that may be exactly how grace works—we receive, and we pass
along. What do you think? Can you be someone else's grace today?
In the Spirit,
Jane
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