Skip to content

Posts from the ‘Grace’ Category

Jun 15

Gentle, Quiet, Grace

“Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.” — Saint Francis de Sales

“Oh! that gentleness! how far more potent is it than force!”― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

For the past three mornings, the girls have been barking with intensity in the backyard.
Each time, going to get them in, a deer standing on the other side of the fence.
Gentle gaze, unmoved by the commotion, undistracted by the noise, rooted in calm ease.
Across traditions and cultures, deer symbolize gentleness, intuition, spiritual renewal.
The ability to navigate life’s challenges with quiet grace.
God enters our days in a million little ways.
Often through nature, children, dogs, deer, other people.
Encounters, distractions, delays, long cuts.
Unseen, bypassed, not on our checklist, sped by on the way to somewhere else.
Make somewhere else this day.
Reset the pace, the cadence.
Someday is this day.
Saunter.
Easy spirit.
Quiet grace.
Just outside your door.
Woven in your heart.
Peace.

“I choose gentleness… Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.”― Max Lucado

“Gentleness is strength under control. It is the ability to stay calm, no matter what happens.” — Elizabeth George

 

Jun 11

In Stillness, Sanctuary

“A walk in nature walks the soul back home.”― Mary Davis, Every Day Spirit: A Daybook of Wisdom, Joy and Peace

“In a silent morning moment, with a silent voice I pray, to lift a silent sunrise offering on silent wings of grace.”― Mary Davis, Every Day Spirit: A Daybook of Wisdom, Joy and Peace

Tending rather than mere attendance
Showing up
Leaning in
To what matters
Leaning back
Foregoing worry
Picking up joy, curiosity, delight
Traveling light, casting light.

“Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary.” – Hermann Hesse

Jun 10

Daily Abundant Grace

“The world is in need of our peace today.”― Mary Davis, Every Day Spirit: A Daybook of Wisdom, Joy and Peace

“Sometimes when we just stand still, the grace finds us.”― Mary Davis, Every Day Spirit: A Daybook of Wisdom, Joy and Peace

In the spaces of pause
Of not doing
Of letting it be
Of slow
Of inquiry
Of curiosity
Of gazing
Grace and gratitude
Clarity, calm, discernment
Pullover, often
Peace resides here
In the allowing, inviting, quieting
Reset, refreshment, renewal
Second, third, fourth chances
Daily abundant grace.

“Not many of us will get to witness a resurrection but most of us will find, over and over again, that our worst fears never materialize. Life has a beautiful way of continuing to give us mornings and second chances. Just when we think the story is over, we get surprise endings and miracles.”― Mary Davis, Every Day Spirit: A Daybook of Wisdom, Joy and Peace

May 14

Bubble of Grace Rising

“Make friends with the shifting sands deep within you; you are opening, changing. Let the air that needs to be released release when and how it comes. Love these bubbles of grace. Curl the corners of your mouth into a small smile as they leave.”― Sarah Blondin, Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love

“I know how scary or intimidating it can be to disconnect, to walk in the opposite direction of all that bright, shiny, noisy distraction. I have faced that fear again and again as I have answered my own call to stillness. But no matter the size of aversion or fear, you must trust me when I say that all that will matter, all that will ever amount to anything, is the relationship you have with the world you carry around inside of you.”― Sarah Blondin, Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love

Call to stillness
Embrace of pause
Grace rising
Quieting, abiding, tending
Peace, flow, exhale.

“You are in charge of how much space a thought takes up in your life. Take the time to carefully consider what you let be a part of your being and your spirit.”― Cleo Wade, Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life

Mar 7

2 Comments

Grace, Grief, Gratitude

“…
May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.”― John O’Donohue, Benedictus: A Book of Blessings

“I am making a home inside myself. A shelter
of kindness where everything
is forgiven, everything allowed—a quiet patch
of sunlight to stretch out without hurry,
where all that has been banished
and buried is welcomed, spoken, listened to—released.
​
A fiercely friendly place I can claim as my very own.
​
I am throwing arms open
to the whole of myself—especially the fearful,
fault-finding, falling apart, unfinished parts, knowing
every seed and weed, every drop
of rain, has made the soil richer.
​
I will light a candle, pour a hot cup of tea, gather
around the warmth of my own blazing fire. I will howl
if I want to, knowing this flame can burn through
any perceived problem, any prescribed perfectionism,
any lying limitation, every heavy thing.
​
I am making a home inside myself
where grace blooms in grand and glorious
abundance, a shelter of kindness that grows
all the truest things.
​
I whisper hallelujah to the friendly
sky. Watch now as I burst into blossom.” – Julia Fehrenbacher

Grace, grief, gratitude.
All at once.
In memories, in this moment
To be present.
To yield to joy.
To be at home.
On the ground of this day.
Abby and Sasha sitting by Mom’s chair.
Three years gone, yet everpresent in each day.
Grace, grief, gratitude.

“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.” – Anne Lamott

Jan 22

Altars in the Ordinary

“Walk on air against your better judgement.”― Seamus Heaney

“Isn’t that a kind of prayer? The care and maintenance of the web of our noticing, the paying heed?”― Kathleen Jamie, Findings

Walking on air
Better yet, running with abandon, delight, ease
Attention, witnessing, partaking
Overflowing, abundant, intricate
Altars in the ordinary
Found in pause, quiet, noticing
Invitation and homecoming
To kneel in reverence, awe, wonder
With gratitude, gravity, grace
Woven in the beautiful mess, imperfected, unfinished, unfolding
Awaiting our care and maintenance
Reciprocating the same and so very much more.

“It’s poetry’s job, isn’t it, to keep making sense of the world in language, to keep the negotiation going? We can’t relinquish that.”― Kathleen Jamie, Findings

Jan 12

Grounding and Grace

“Children, like animals use all their senses to discover the world. Then artists come along and discover it the same way…Or now and then we’ll hear from an artist who’s never lost it.”― Eudora Welty

“I go fishing in my mind. I put out bait, the bait of my own longing, my desire, and my hunger for connection, for a tug of something alive at the end of a line. Something that I may have to struggle with to pull in, but that will be wild and important to me, whether I keep it or let it go.”― Pat Schneider, How the Light Gets In: Writing as a Spiritual Practice

Crisp air
Deep breath
Awakening senses
Calm and wonder
Delight and awe
Grounding and grace
What to keep
What to let go
Choose well

“Be led by your joy.”― Pat Schneider, How the Light Gets In: Writing as a Spiritual Practice

Oct 19

Transformation Work of Grace

“Could it be that we are so worn and desperate for ways to better ourselves because we’ve missed the power, inherent in the grace of God, that eradicates self-improvement altogether? Is it possible that we keep trying to answer the wrong question— “Am I enough?” —when we’re really wanting to know: “Is God Enough?”
― Ruth Chou Simons, When Strivings Cease: Replacing the Gospel of Self-Improvement with the Gospel of Life-Transforming Grace

“It’s a grace that enables the hope that sustains us in times of uncertainty, pain, and when our lives don’t look the way we hoped or expected. God’s grace isn’t an afterthought for a believer walking through unexpected circumstances; it’s the anchor.”― Ruth Chou Simons, When Strivings Cease: Replacing the Gospel of Self-Improvement with the Gospel of Life-Transforming Grace

Anchor of grace
Given freely
Tethered by hope
Imagination widening the view
More than enough, overflowing
Presence and trust, without explanation
Even here, wherever here is for you
Keep walking, story unfolding, transformation at work
Peace, love, joy

“I walked through times and seasons that felt like exile, God was always writing a story in my life that was more than I could imagine.”― Ruth Chou Simons, When Strivings Cease: Replacing the Gospel of Self-Improvement with the Gospel of Life-Transforming Grace

Sep 4

Blooming with Grace

“To the ones that bloomed when the world expected them to wither.”― Lisina Coney, The Brightest Light of Sunshine

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change.” — Buddha

Wherever planted this day, this week, this season
Bloom
With color
Hope
Resilience
Gratitude
Wonder
Joy
Grit
Curiosity
Awe
Grace
Most of all.

“Wherever life plants you, bloom with grace”― Lisina Coney, The Brightest Light of Sunshine

Jul 16

Pure Gold

“The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.” – Heraclitus

“Reclaiming ourselves usually means coming to recognize and accept that we have in us both sides of everything. We are capable of fear and courage, generosity and selfishness, vulnerability and strength. These things do not cancel each other out but offer us a full range of power and response to life. Life is as complex as we are. Sometimes our vulnerability is our strength, our fear develops our courage, and our woundedness is the road to our integrity. It is not an either/or world. It is a real world. In calling ourselves “heads” or “tails,” we may never own and spend our human currency, the pure gold of which our coin is made.

But judgment may heal over time. One of the blessings of growing older is the discovery that many of the things I once believed to be my shortcomings have turned out in the long run to be my strengths, and other things of which I was unduly proud have revealed themselves in the end to be among my shortcomings. Things that I have hidden from others for years turn out to be the anchor and enrichment of my middle age. What a blessing it is to outlive your self-judgments and harvest your failures.”― Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal

Complicated, real, messy, beautiful life.
Unfolding and unfurling.
Stasis and motion.
Dark and light.
Slow and fast.
Sweet and salty.
Desert and oasis.
Sunrise and sunset.
And all of the in-between where we reside most.
For grace and sense to outlive self-judgement, harvest failure, walk with awe, dance with wonder, grow and deepen, and love well.
Pure gold.

“It is not that we have a soul, but that we are a soul.”― Rachel Naomi Remen

« Older Entries