grace and gratitude

i read a blog last week that has stayed with me since reading it.
Swirly Girl’s Blog

it speaks of grace and gratitude and makes mention of the personifications of grace and gratitude.

there are several different definitions of grace, applicable in a multitude of scenarios.
the one that i feel particularly pulled to is:

a manifestation of favor

now, that favor doesn’t have to be granted by the Divine, it can come from another person. (although in some faith belief systems, we all carry the very nature of Divine love within us, so i guess that means it could come from the Divine... but i digress). grace can come from an unexpected smile, or a random act of kindness.
it could be a seemingly small act that reverberates through not only the person granted that grace, but through to the other’s affected by that grace.

grace, to me, also means wisdom. with wisdom, i think we are able to allow more grace to come into our lives, and by the same token, grant more grace to those we come into contact with. the fiery tempers of our youth can pass and the temperance of time and patience allow us to act more judiciously. to know where that junction of heart/mind/gut instinct resides within us, and to know when to follow that juncture through to its logical end.

i think that a lesson we sometimes either fail to learn, or fail to acknowledge is that grace can also mean knowledge. i’m thinking very specifically of the knowing one receives through time and experience; the knowing of what is truly important, and what isn’t.

grace can also be a countenance. if you carry yourself with grace, full of the knowledge and wisdom, and the ability to act in the manner of kindnesses that have been granted to you over time, you will notice a change in yourself. in finding that spirit of peace in that juncture of heart/mind/gut, when you’ve attuned yourself with yourself, there is just...

calm.

gratitude can be defined as:

the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful

gratitude can be quiet, or it can be an all-encompassing soul wrenching affair. gratitude is just being thankful, something i know i don’t acknowledge nearly enough. being thankful for the dawn, being thankful for the simple things, being thankful for the grace that’s been shown me or others that i love.

we take so many things for granted in our day to day, not being thankful or even appreciative. more often than not, we are resentful of what’s not in our life, of what we’re missing, instead of having the grace to show our gratitude.

sometimes gratitude just needs to be verbalized. other times, it needs to be reciprocated. still others, exhibiting gratitude means acknowledging and learning a life lesson.

more often than not, grace and gratitude go hand in hand. we just need to find that juncture and join those hands.