“Grace, then, is grace, – that is to say, it is sovereign, it is free, it is sure, it is unconditional, and it is everlasting.” ~ Alexander Whyte
Grace is a complicated premise. I remember intersecting with the word as first grader. Standing in the middle of an auditorium filled with children my age, I was required by my Christian school to recite Bible passages. I don’t understand why my Hindu parents chose to enroll me in a school that honored a different religion from what we practiced at home, but I am grateful for this experience because those beginnings shape my definition of grace.
My other connection stems from evenings at the dinner table in my house. My mom cooked hot roti fresh from the stove. The green vegetables, the plate of cucumbers and tomatoes, and pickled relish added color to our chipped sunburned table. Before my sister or I stuffed the buttered goodness in our mouth, my father mandated that we say grace. The prayer began with the phrase “Om Saha Nau-Avatu” and served as our way to honor God and the meal we were fortunate to eat.
These two memories offered a glimpse into grace, but the texture of what it really meant did not percolate until much later. I needed grace to mean something more than a prayer at the dinner table or the recitation of a Bible passage. My struggle almost always involves trying to navigate the distance between sorrow and happiness. I cannot seem to reconcile the two opposite emotions. This month I’ve witnessed a new couple celebrate their upcoming nuptials, while a mother mourns the loss of her child. There are mothers who welcomed multiple babies, while other women are finding it difficult to even conceive one bundle of joy. Some are celebrating promotions at work, while others are wondering whether in the next month they will be in the pool of layoffs. My own personal pendulum revolved around trying to navigate the loss of my father and the birth of my daughter that happened in close proximity to one another. This provided my impetus to really pay attention to what I needed to reconcile two very extreme emotions.
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Grace is in small things. Last weekend the mountains welcomed me at dawn. The sun played hide-and-seek with nature and her surroundings. I glanced up and caught a peak of the beginnings of a golden waterfall. In that moment, I took a breath, inhaled and exhaled, and listened to the birds, looked up at the light blue sky and tried to bottle up the feeling of this kind of grace—the ability to hike, to see, to hear, to feel the texture of what it means to be truly alive.
In the last month in particular, I’ve learned to appreciate the grace of simple things. The simplicity of knowing that you can walk, feel your breath, enjoy the sway of the trees and understand that this simplicity is a miracle. Isn’t this grace? I am always thinking about uncertain terrain between the good and the bad. Undermining what is in front of me, I tend to focus on all the things that aren’t happening, on what happened in the past, or what may occur in the future. In truth, though, grace is in the current moment. It is in the practice of appreciating the small gifts that encompass the busyness of your days. What we dismiss as routine or boring is where grace resides.
Witnessing grace has taught me that these moments are short, fleeting and temporary. But it is up to me to sink into the glory of such goodness without yearning for more.
It turns out that grace doesn’t have to be complicated.
This post originally appeared on The First Day.
Image: Graces by Fe Langdon via Flickr
Depending on the person grace can be complicated or simple. Like you, I prefer the simplicity of it…it is right in front of us, we only need be aware. The opportunity to live is grace itself. Thank you for these beautiful words and thoughts this morning, Rudri.
I had a great-grandmother named Grace so the word has rolled off my tongue for decades. I prefer to look at it simply and as right in front of me if I should happen to notice.
What a beautiful post!
I think when our hearts our open grace is in the small things. We feel it when we are sensitive to the people and the world around us.
Whyte said it so perfectly. Grace, in the small things or the big things, is sovereign, free and everlasting. Navigating one’s way through emotions is not always easy to do. But grace makes it possible to live every day, under any circumstances. I love how you describe finding grace in nature and the very act of breathing, of being in the moment. If I live where my feet are planted right now, I am more at peace with myself and with life. Tomorrow will take care of itself when I get there, because grace will be available, and I do not have to worry about what lies ahead. You always get me thinking, and I feel a little better about the day after reading this post 🙂
Grace doesn’t have to be complicated indeed. When I think of grace I think of Audrey Hepburn. I love her. 🙂 I think of good manners and appreciation. Definitely in the small things. I would hope it increases with age, at least that appears to be the case in my scenario. Have a great one Rudri and Happy Monday! -Iva
What an absolutely astute and beautiful post.
Oh, so lovely, Rudri. I am not religious, per say, but often experience the sort of grace that you describe in the last bit of your post. It reminds me, a bit, of what my husband (Buddhist) says; that everything – the stars colliding and the choices of our ancestors and the way things ARE have colluded to be you, right at this instant, and that it is exactly right.