Category Archives: acts of grace

Savour the Moment | 52 Acts of Grace | Week 26

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It is so easy in this fast paced world to stuff every moment with doing. And in the process, forget about the being. Present. Conscious. Connected — to the food we eat, the places we sit, the people we’re with.

Ripened on the vine

Ripened on the vine

One thing about fall, it invites me back into the kitchen. On the weekend, I hauled out the slow cooker so that I could create wholesome foods from the bounty of our tomato plants and other produce I’d bought at the farmer’s market.

Last night, after a busy day for both C.C. and myself, we took Beaumont for a walk in the park, came home, set the table on the deck with a linen table cloth, china and crystal glasses. I heated up one of the pots of goodness I’d created on the weekend, C.C. sliced homemade bread and made a salad. We spent the next hour plus savouring homemade goodness and each other’s company. The air had just a hint of fall, the sky just a tinge of pink. As the solar lights surrounding the deck and hanging in the lilac bush came on, we sat and chatted and laughed and talked about our days and our tomorrows.

The ‘To Do’ list didn’t get any shorter but our feeling of being more together got stronger. The list feels less daunting when we take the time to recognize we’re not doing it alone. After dinner, C.C. went off to a meeting at 8:30, I finished off a couple of chores and chose to pick up a book (after trying to watch some of the debate) and savour the quiet of the evening reading by myself with Beaumont lying on the floor beside me.

Take time today to savour the moment, savour your food and especially, savour time with those you love.

Take a walk in nature | 52 Acts of Grace | Week 25

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It is fall. My favourite time of year. Morning rises with crisp cool air. The sun’s rays lengthen and feels as though they are seeping deeper into my skin, as if summer’s kisses have softened the surface to let autumn’s rays melt into my bones in preparation for winter. I hold the memory of their warmth within me.

Beaumont bounces more easily along the trails, the heat of summer no longer holding him back from examining and sniffing every blade of grass and fallen leaf.

It is easy to forget to ‘stop and smell the roses’. To walk as if the purpose of exercising Beaumont is my only reason to be outside.

I purposelessly slow down. There is time. And there is a beautiful fall canopy of rustling golden leaves to enjoy.

Richard Rohr writes,

The energy in the universe is not in the planets, nor in the atomic particles, but very surprisingly in the relationship between them. It’s not in the cells of organisms but in the way the cells feed and give feedback to one another through semi-permeable membranes. The energy is not in any precise definition or in the partly arbitrary names of the three persons of the Trinity as much as in the relationship between the Three! This is where all the power for infinite renewal is at work:

The loving relationship between them.

The infinite love between them.

The dance itself.   (Source:  The Center for Action and Contemplation)

We are all part of a relational universe. We are all connected.

Get outside and connect to nature. Be intentional in your relation to the flow of nature all around. Be part of love flowing always. In and out. In and out.

Forgiveness is a healing grace

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We are human beings who often do things that hurt the ones we love the most. Many years ago I was released by the police from a relationship that was killing me. At the time, my daughters, in their mid teens, did not know where I was for the final 4 months of that relationship. Because of the darkness surrounding me, I wanted desperately to die and waited daily for him to make it come true. And then, the police drove up and took him away and I got the miracle of my life back.

Healing my broken spirit and heart was vital to creating space for my daughters, my family and friends to heal.

It has not always been a straight path, nor an easy path.

There have been times when I have wanted to run from the pain and regret, the sorrow and sadness at having hurt them so badly.

To run away would be a rejection of the miracle of getting my life back. It would be a betrayal greater than his abuse because I would be the one consciously choosing to turn away from the light. In those dark moments when I desperately want to turn my back on the present and return to the past I cannot change, I return once again to forgiveness.

It is my choice to live in the light. To forgive myself so that I can continue to create space for love to flow freely in today. In that space, I find myself breathing easily again, allowing compassion to flow and heal the still broken places I do not see within me and around me.

 

 

Healing is a constant journey of love and forgiveness, love and forgiveness. The ancient scripture of the Bhagavad Gita expresses it beautifully. “Curving back on myself I begin again and again.”

May we all continually curve back on ourselves to begin again and again in forgiveness and love as we find compassion and joy in our daily being.

May we all know we deserve to live in joy and love and peace. May we all have the courage to take the path, no matter where we are in the world, that begins with forgiveness of the things we do to harm each other and block ourselves from knowing love.

In the world around us, may we all allow the grace of forgiveness, so that we can create a world of possibility for love to flow freely between us and all around us.

Namaste.

Seek out the Beauty | 52 Acts of Grace | Week 22

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It is easy to get lost in the darkness of this world, to forget that lightness begets light. It is easy to see only the tragedies, the horrors, the seemingly escalating violence that ripples with such ferocity around the globe with every mass event of killing, that ever heart breaks as one.

Seek out the beauty.

Seek out the things that soothe your soul and lift your spirits.

To give into the darkness is to let go of hope.

Seek out the beauty.

See it in every flower, in the clear blue sky above, in the cloudy, stormy day nourishing earth with life-giving water.

See it in the face of a child, and the weary eyes of a homeless man panhandling for money.

See it in the gratitude you feel when you wave at the driver behind who let you merge, and in the wave of the driver you made room to merge in front of you.

See the beauty in all, and create beauty in all ways you experience your day.

Do not allow sarcasm, crude jokes and off-colour remarks be the measure of your ripple.

Do not let skepticism, criticism, condemnation and complaints mark your progress through your day.

Let only light, gentle humour, loving laughter, kind acts become your ripple.

Commit to living from the light for this day, and see what a difference it makes in the lightness of your heart, the smiles of those around you.

Seek out the beauty and let your heart shine.

Thank the Sun | 52 Acts of Grace | Week 21

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When we begin each day with gratitude, each day becomes brighter and our hearts become lighter.

No matter what is happening in our lives, we can always be thankful for the sun and moon and stars and earth. For this planet that carries us around the sun. For the sun that nourishes life on earth, for the moon that pulls the tide in and out. For the stars that light our way at night.

Whatever is happening in your life today, take a moment to thank the sun for the divine pact it made with earth long ago. Thank it for greeting you every morning when you arise, for shining upon you and all of earth, for feeding the life around you.

Practice saying a simple prayer or blessing to the sun every day this week.

“Thank you Sun for shining so brightly. Thank you for the light that feeds the plants and animals and gives me vitamins my body needs. Thank you for your warmth. I am grateful.”

Let Peace Be | 52 Acts of Grace | Week 20

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I read somewhere that the mental energy of 10,000 people thinking the same thought at the same time about lighting a lightbulb can make it happen.

Imagine if 10,000 people chose to hold the same thought about making peace. Imagine if 100,000 people did it. Or a million. A billion.

Would peace be possible?

Between every action and your reaction is a  moment of choice. It may be just a millisecond, a flicker of light, a fissure of possibility — to choose, to decide, to opt out of anger into peace.

There is always a choice in our responses. The choice may not be easy. It may not feel possible. It may not feel comfortable. But it is there. The choice to take the other way. The path away from discord, anger, fighting, violence, war.

It is the choice to take the path to create peace, harmony, calm.

Before you react, breathe and ask yourself, “Is what I am about to do or say going to create discord or harmony?”

Always choose the path to harmony. Always choose the path of peace.

Discord takes but a moment to create. It can take a lifetime to dismantle, to forget, to heal.

Peace is the constant creation of hope over despair, healing over hurting, love over resentment, harmony over discord.

Let your path today always be the choice to create harmony. Let peace be the choice that inspires 10,000 others to choose peace with you.

 

Do No Harm | 52 Acts of Grace | Week 19

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It is easy to justify our actions and words when we’ve behaved poorly, been mean, rude, cruel to another. In fact, it often feels better to blame another so that we don’t have to be accountable. All we have to tell ourselves to make our bad behaviour less potent is say, “It’s not my fault. It’s their fault. If they hadn’t ___________, or if they would just _______________ then I wouldn’t ______________.”

And we all do it.

Blaming our actions on someone else’s doings, however,  is just another way of staying unaccountable for ourselves. It takes the sting out of our not living true to our principles, beliefs, integrity.

Let go of finding fault for yourself in someone else’s actions and let being kind, doing no harm be your guide. Ask yourself, is my response creating more of what I want in my life? Will this get me more joy, happiness, love, peace? If it won’t, then ask yourself, What can I do differently?

It’s not that you’re making someone else’s bad behaviour okay. It is never okay when someone does things that hurt or harm. Behaving badly because they did is not a good reason for living life outside integrity.

You can still hold them accountable for their behaviour and be accountable for your own by not blaming them for your poor responses  — and when we are 100% accountable for how we behave, and focus on Do No Harm we create a better world.

And we all deserve a better world!

Begin Again | 52 Acts of Grace | Week 18

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We know the things we need to do that keep us healthy. We start a regimen, get going and everything goes along swimmingly until a life hiccup interrupts the flow and we stop. We stop exercising daily, writing in our journal, meditating, eating healthily.

And in the stopping, we tell ourselves, “I don’t have time.” “I’m too tired.” “I’ll start tomorrow.” “It wasn’t making a difference anyway.”

And resistance rises. Avoidance mounts. Shame grows.

Stop.

Stop and breathe and tell yourself, “I shall begin again. Right now. Right where I am at.”

And begin again.

Stop the mind chatter. Stop the litany of reasons why you can’t, or how you are such a loser because you never follow through, always fall down, can’t keep agreements with yourself.

Give yourself the grace of letting go of ‘the story’ of why not, and begin again.

Always begin again.

 

Say I Love You. | 52 Acts of Grace | Week 17

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On the far wall at the end of our bed is a sign that reads, “Always kiss me goodnight.”

I hung it there several years ago so that my beloved and I would always remember the most important thing before falling asleep. We are together in this world. We are partners. Cohorts. Lovers. And the best thing to do before falling asleep every night, is to seal our commitment to one another with a kiss.

It’s easy sometimes to forget to tell those you love the most that you love them. You become accustomed to the ebb and flow of daily life. The ins and outs and permutations of daily living. The relationships you count on most become part of the life you live and sometimes, acknowledging the ease and comfort of your most special relationships is forgotten.

Sometimes, distance, time, happenings put a strain on a relationship and we forget that to cross the bridge of discord we must let go of the past and remember what is most important today.

Sometimes, we tell ourselves they don’t need to hear the words. They simply know the truth.

Whatever they do or don’t know. Whatever the state of your important relationships, take a moment today to acknowledge the other by telling them, “I Love You.”

And be open to whatever happens next.