Contemplating Grace
by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
May 10, 2019
I find a deep connection in nature, and I get out there every chance I get. It’s so natural and unadorned, yet majestic and beautiful.
I have been a finder of heart-shaped things and other symbols in nature like arrows pointing the way for many years now. I’ve only recently started writing about it. Today was different though. Today I found grace, just beyond the shoreline carved into the sand where the elegant ocean waves meet the land. Someone had carved the word into the sand, and I walked by in the right and perfect time to see it. She is subtle and worthy of approbation, grace, as are we all. When this type of experience occurs for me, it fills my heart with love. It’s as if everything conspired for that moment to happen. It reminded me that I’m walking on holy ground.
Grace is not reserved only for the Saints or royalty. Ordinary, everyday grace occurs when you realize that you are made of the very essence of God. It may appear as a feeling of love washing over you or an unexpected insight that arises from the deepest place within you. Grace may arise in an undesirable way and may appear painful and messy like the end of a relationship or an unexpected job loss. Painful endings are magnificent beginnings in disguise. One might call this fierce grace. I believe that life is always conspiring for our highest and greatest good.
If you’ve ever fallen from grace, fear not, for she is generous and distinguished, and you are well blessed and highly favored. Your presence will be home to the kindness of grace once again.
We can always take a backward step into the pure potentiality of the present moment.
The human dilemma of duality and the concept of a separate self creates thoughts of suffering surrounding it. In a moment of grace those addictive thoughts that perpetuate suffering become uninteresting and less thrilling than the pure goodness of remembering who you truly are.
Instead of falling from grace we are called to fall into grace. To fall into life wholly and completely as the great mystery, allowing it to reveal the multitude of gifts and magnificent blessings of it. Surrendering to the Divine as the mystical truth and essence of who and what you are is the calling. You can fall into grace in the same way you fall into the embrace of a loved one to be held and cared for, or the feeling of falling asleep at night when your head hits the pillow.
Just for a few minutes, move out of me, you, mine, his and her mentality, and into pure Consciousness. Be undisturbed by the hoopla, or the delusions of the mind, and rest in the Absolute. Let go of identifying with any personal stories that create an individual self, and abide in Unified Awareness. Let the Presence shine through and as you.
And so it is.
