Saturday, October 26, 2013

Waiting For Grace to Come


I have this sort of routine every day where I greet the day with my garden boots on, cup of coffee in hand, cell phone in the other and cat at my side.

What started out as a means of escape from the early morning school rush madness has turned into a morning meditation. With one step outside I am transformed from ciaos to tranquil peace.

My cat joins me in this daily practice. She demands it really. She has a slight addiction to "the nip", the catnip being one of the many herbs I have on the patio.



Well...hard to deny a habit with bits of the evidence on your nose. 

I usually sit for a brief moment while she snaps off nip leaves and smacks her way into morning bliss. While I take in deep breaths and sip more coffee she slinks off, down the few steps that lead passed the pool to the little chunk of yard I've claimed for the garden.

As she brushes against my garden boots while wandering the yard I scan from the ground to the sky. In the words of Brother David Steindl-Rast, "We so rarely look at the sky." It's always a stunning display of clouds here in Texas.


I soak up the morning's sights, sounds, smells and take inventory of sorts of how my body is "coming to" that day. And I'm grateful. I feel grounded and grateful for even if this is the only quiet peace I have that day, I know I can always call it back tomorrow.

In a Facebook post by writer Elizabeth Berg she refers to a similar practice her friend does every day. She writes of her friend's experience, "She sits for ten minutes every morning, essentially waiting for grace to come. And it always came, in one form of another."

Ms. Berg explained that she tried it herself and she found the same experience. "Grace came, usually in the form of a kind of peace. A stillness inside that makes for a shifting of priorities, so that it was easier for what should matter most to matter most."

I can't find a better way to phrase this morning meditation better myself. Grace comes- and not always in the form you think it might.

Nature goes on and if you ask it how, and you're patient enough to wait for her answer, she'll show you.
Hummingbird egg shell. Grace and beauty come in all packages. 

I bring my phone outside with me because it has an awesome camera and I love to capture these little gems of grace. Some days nature's grace takes on simple forms, like a lady bug. Yesterday it was tiny blades of grass in the most beautiful shades of green only matched by Crayola. Grass growing in our yard during a long drought is amazing.


Exodus 14:14 The Lord will fight for you; You need only be still. 

Carve out a little time daily to be still and wait. Wait for it...wait for it...and there. There it is. Grace.