Grace

At Crazy Wisdom Bookstore this afternoon, we will be talking and sharing stories about aging. I called this get-together Coming Down the Mountain with Grace. It's a phrase I liked from a philosophy bath product my sister got me years ago that had on its label how you come down the mountain is just as important as how you go up. This morning I've been thinking about the skills we need to go up the mountain. Agility, physical strength, tenacity, attention, care, planning. So do we need these to come down the mountain. Maybe we're missing the physical strength of youth, but we're wilier, better at navigating, and we know to duck and weave. The downhill slope is faster, and there are those pesky obstacles that remain from the ascent. The ascent is how we learn. The descent is how we apply the knowledge.

Grace in a Bottle

How do we keep grace? Do we hang out at the table in Whole Foods where we first experienced the feeling, hoping for its return? Whose grace was granted? Why did Carol and I share that moment? May we experience grace with others? Can we ever explain what happened? I don't know. Perhaps what is new for me is I am okay with never knowing. We have wonderful friends. We share. When I am with graceful women, I feel graced, too. We are compassionate and gentle with each other. This is grace. My sisters replenish my supply of philosophy's amazing grace bath gel each year. I love it (and them) for the fragrance, but mostly for the copy on the bottle. I borrowed a piece of the wisdom for my profile. On the bath gel, philosophy defines grace as compassion, gratitude, surrender, faith, forgiveness, good manners, reverence, and the list goes on. My therapist, the gifted and graced Rosemary Jozwiak, said years ago that all I was missing is faith in a good outcome. And thanks to friendship and belief, I now have the missing piece of the philosophy puzzle. I intend to keep grace alive and to grow the love.

To Jane on Her 60th Birthday

Happy birthday, Jane Marie. Jane married brother John in 1973, happily for our joined families. Jane is a beautiful human being, a loving sister, wife, parent, and an inspiration to me. Jane's faith is deep, abiding, rich and she shares her belief in such a way that the glow of it permeates all life around her. She is the embodiment of what is most precious to us: to be slow to judge and quick to love. I have learned from her about humility, devotion and grace in adversity. Her God is the light she carries within, and a light that I have come to see as universal for all who dwell with the glory and peace of the divine, in whatever way we choose to worship. She has taught me that whichever words we use to relay the beauty and awe of divinity, the glow is the same for every living thing, and relaying the beauty in deed is the call we answer. She is an angel on earth. I love her, and I look forward to many more years of learning from her. Happy birthday, with gratitude and admiration, dearest Jane.