Tag: grace

How to Meet Your Vulnerability with Tenderness

Delicate things are incredibly beautiful. I held a single jasmine blossom in my hand this morning, amazed at how something so small could offer such powerful perfume. I noticed how I softened in awe of the jasmine flower’s fragile nature. Delicate things do that to us. We are touched by the understated beauty of their vulnerability.

But can we meet the soft and vulnerable parts of ourselves with the same kind of tenderness? Can we release the judgements that we place on our intricate feminine qualities or flaws and see them as things of beauty instead of weaknesses?

I was taught to judge myself harshly and I’ve spent many years on a self-healing path learning to undo this thinking, learning to treat myself with compassion instead. Somehow, holding that tiny flower in my palm offered a new kind of guidance back to wholeness. Is this what I need to do when I project negative judgement towards myself and my so-called ‘weaknesses’?…Hold a tiny flower (or a silky rose petal, a butterfly or a little lady bug) in the palm of my hand. Look at its smallness, its softness and its delicate nature for a moment. Allow myself to shift into gentleness and then hold the vulnerabilities, flaws and things that frustrate me about myself in my heart so that I transfer the same kind of compassion to them.

Every day I am reminded of how important it is for me to be my own nurturer if I want to live in grace and return to wholeness. Using a simple little flower to teach me that may be an inane way to do so, but I am willing to try nonetheless.

How do you meet your vulnerability with tenderness and compassion?

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Could You be a Sign?

I grew up believing in signs.

My grandmother always prayed for them. My mom did too. And they believed that their prayers were answered – pictures falling off walls, birds in the kitchen and dreams revealing a way forward. So, when I read The Alchemist in my late teens, it reinforced a beautiful reality that I’d seen in action in little ways. It opened my mind to a Universe that I’d caught small glimpses of here and there, an abundant Universe alive with magic, weaving blessings and love into our lives, a Universe that is guiding us to a greater good when we are open to receiving what it has to offer.

I’ve been asking for signs in recent weeks. I’ve needed guidance for clarity and direction. As I try to remain as open and receptive as I can, they’ve slowly been coming to me. Coincidences, messages from the Earth, passages I read in books and guidance from my oracle cards.  And this week, the signs I’ve ask for have come from kind people in the most unexpected ways, people who I am sure are completely unaware as to how much their presence or random messages have touched my life.

Sometimes a feather is a sign…and sometimes we are signs to people. Yes, sometimes you are the message of hope they’ve been waiting for, or perhaps they are that sign to you.

I feel this is especially true when you are connected to your wild essence, because being in touch with your inner spirit allows you become a vessel of grace. Being centred in truth, light, inner peace and wild grace is a gateway into the energetic network of the Universe. And so we carry that vibration of love, of hope and of inspiration through our words, our actions and even just our presence. We become their signs. We become their angels on Earth. We become the breadcrumbs that lead them back to clarity and hopefulness. Back to wholeness. Back to God(dess).

Thank you, dear guiding lights whose love and wisdom have healed my heart. I am so grateful. I hope that in some small way, I can be a guiding light and humble sign to you too.

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How to Live In Grace

“But I want first of all…to be a peace with myself….I want, in fact – to borrow from the language of the saints – to live “in grace” as much as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony.” ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

The sun feels like warm honey dripping down my back. Its medicine soothes my cold sick bones.

“Lean back and rest,” whispers the sun.

So I oblique and lean into its comforting embrace from my cosy chair near the window. I write a few words and then snooze. When I open my eyes, I jot down a few more dreamy words – “This is how I’m meant to be right now. This is grace for me in this moment”. Then I drift off again. Wrapped in a cocoon of warm honey sun, I close my eyes and surrender my tired body to sleep.

Most days I convince myself that living in grace means doing certain things. Things like waking up early, meditating frequently, drinking tea, journaling, doing yoga or connecting with Mother Earth. Yet now, being man down with terrible flu and unable to do many of these things, I’m reminded that I’m not necessarily living ‘out of grace’ when I’m not doing these things. Yes, the activities I’ve listed are all valuable pathways which do indeed lead me back to a state of grace. However, the experience of living in grace is not so much about the doing and as it is about settling into a space of quiet inner peace and allowing it to translate into a harmonious outer essence of flow.

Grace is such a fluid thing. It’s a tender process of surrendering, flowing and allowing things to be as they are. It requires easing through each moment without resistance.

Mother Nature does grace so well. I see it in the poise of the robin sitting on my windowsill, in the way another brown leaf falls to the earth and in how the paper white blossoms next to me glow like luminous snow in the winter light.

I breathe in this serenity slowly, mindfully and exhale any resistance to what is. I remind myself once more that this is what grace looks like for me right now, even if it means making peace with this illness

What does living in grace mean to you?

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