Grace

​I’d love to be able to say I have this down and it’s a core attribute of mine, highly polished and placed prominently on the bookshelf. In truth, it’s more a work in progress and usually found in a dust covered box beside the tools in the shed.

​Although I aspire to have more Grace in my life, it takes attention and focus, because, it’s not going to magically happen by itself. I have to put some work in so I can claim the prize. After all, no athlete won the marathon without doing some training first.
 
The thing is, I love the thought of it, and I know when I’ve been in the company of it, because I feel humbled somehow and very blessed.
It’s known as limitless and in plentiful supply, and if we just tapped into it regularly, it has the potential to reflect more of who we are, while shining its light in our lives.
Loosely defined Grace is the benevolent, powerful, unwavering energy of the universe that guides us towards the best version of ourselves.
 
What stands out about Grace is the beauty of it. When we are with someone who has it, we know there’s something about that person that stands them apart from others, they have this unique quality that is both calming and empathic. The impact stays with us long after they have gone.
I first recognised Grace when I was quite young and met someone who emanated this lovely quality about them. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I sure do now.
 
Having Grace become a bigger part of our lives creates more humility and empathy in us, and the world could benefit from that. Doing this has a twofold effect; it allows us to check in with our behaviour, as well as allowing us the ability to judge less and love more.
Being someone who is constantly looking to adopt more humility and awareness in my life, Grace has become a friend I rely on more and more.
 
Grace in action is easy to see, it has a peace and beauty that cannot be transcended, and its uniqueness ensures it doesn’t always inhabit those we think it would. It tends to pop up at unexpected times and afford us a view of others that we were not aware of.
Ways that Grace appears can be; courage under fire, detaching from the popular and sometime judgemental view or even speaking less to observe more.
Grace is not loud, opinionated or judgemental.
Grace is well, simply graceful.
 
To have more Grace in our lives is easy and first begins by paying attention to it.
 

• Asking what we can do before wanting to change others
• Noticing our own behaviour when issues appear
• Giving awareness to our thoughts, judgemental or otherwise
• Speaking when it is useful rather than to hear our own voices. Mindfully offering an opinion by putting it through 3 gates is mandatory: Is it necessary, is it kind and is it true?

 
Those steps lead us to inhabit Grace’s beauty and charm and lead us to the best version of ourselves. In case there was any doubt - we have many versions.
On a typical day we can have the unkind, snappy and self-righteous type, move right through to the kind and unselfish version of ourselves and end up somewhere in between. All versions are human and expected but being aware and giving attention to the ‘best us’ enables more of that to show up.
 
Every day we are surrounded by people and situations that we like or admire. Grace probably lives here. Conversely the times we see that unkindness, judgement, bigotry and judgement are all at play, is when Grace is taking a break and we lose a little heart and feel a little less.
Most of our media tend to report the latter, and nowhere is this more obvious than on the 6 o’clock news, where 57 minutes of the 60-minutes is devoted to just that. Why? Because that is what we are drawn to. That seems to be what interests us and elicits strong and negative reactions. But what if we turned that around and focused instead on the Grace filled moments when kindness, empathy and non-judgement were prominent? We all love the hero stories; we only have to remember the aftermath of the Moslem attacks, to see the basic kindness and love that we humans inhabit.
 
Imagine a world where that happened all the time, where the focus was on helping, supporting and loving each other?
I can’t think of a better place to be.
Can you?
I vote Grace
How about you?  
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