An Opportunity to Practice

An intention for 2015:

Increase my awareness of the light of grace in the midst of life’s messiness.

Linda A. Marshall

On January 1^st I posted this intention on my blog.

On January 2^nd messiness entered my life.

As I set that intention, I wondered if I was inviting messiness in. It seems that I had.

I received a tearful phone call from my forty-three-year-old daughter who is single and has a disability. She depends on me. She’d just experienced a significant loss in her life.

I might have jumped in to try to control the situation. I’d certainly done that often enough in the past. But letting go and accepting my powerlessness over people, places, and things is something I began working on some thirty years ago.  

And, as I reminded myself, I’d made that intention. So, at the beginning of 2015, I remained calm and looked for the light of grace.

I listened to my daughter’s distress and then asked, “How can I support you? Just let me know what you need and I’ll do it.”

She was conflicted about what she needed from me. She needed my presence but my presence would not have been well received by those she had to deal with, making her situation even more distressing.

And so we waited for guidance. And then the still small voice of Wisdom within gave us the answer. “Reach out for support from a friend who cares.”

 Thank God for friends.

Karen has served as a gift of grace in the midst of the messiness in our life on several occasions. She appears in my memoir, A Long Awakening to Grace, as just such a gift. Once again, Karen entered as usual—with compassion, empathy, and a deep wisdom of her own.

I write this post with gratitude for the increase in my awareness of the light of grace and the decrease in the length of time it takes for me to notice.