Grace: 4th Anniversary

I woke up this morning thinking how lucky I am.

This is strange because I’m in the middle of quite possibly the most challenging work season of my career, at least in terms of the volume I need to get done. I’ve been starting my days early and ending them late, never quite sure if anything I did get done was good enough. The pact I made with myself earlier in the year, the one where I am to put my self care first above work and the needs of everyone else, is being challenged in a big way. The promises we make to ourselves get tested, I think, to see just how serious we are about our intentions.

But in the middle of all the stress and in the center of the anxiety and at the heart of these life school tests, I have discovered a new lens to look at life. My worldview has shifted. As I look out the window on this early morning, the sun hours away from presenting itself, I know that our days are made up of small beautiful moments that string together to create a life. I know that there is grace in the challenging and the confusing, just as much as in the blatently beautiful.

And that’s all because of this blog. Writing this chronicle, particularly this year, has changed me more than words can say. My intention was to celebrate the good things in life, which I admit sounds a bit like a bumper sticker slogan. That thought has deepened as I’ve awakened to the fact that it’s much bigger – and simpler – than that, that goodness really is everywhere and in everything.

It’s in the sunsets and the moonrises, mystical wonders of beauty that reliably show up, day after day.

It’s on the plate filled with food prepared by my mom, meant to nourish my body, but more often than not filling my soul. It’s in the wine glass filled with drink in the restaurant, carefully selected not only to pair perfectly with my meal, but also because the pourer knew I would like it.

It’s in the hearts and love phrases that I’m finding everywhere, offerings from a world full of joy just waiting to be experienced.

Goodness is everywhere. Grace shows up in the most perfect moments, always exactly when you need to look at something from a different perspective.

That you have chosen to witness all of this by showing up and reading these words, touches me. As Goodness, Grace and Grub celebrates year 4 of life, I celebrate all of you for taking this journey with me.

Here’s to the next year of celebration!

xo, with goodness and grace

Grace of the Day: Love in Israel

My old friend Stuart emailed me this morning, telling me that he’d just arrived home from Israel, where he’d spent some time for work.  While on a walk with his wife one day, they came across a series of hearts.  They reminded him of me, and the signs of love I’ve been seeing over these last few months.

Love made its way to me, even though it was on a mural far away in Tel Aviv.

Love may not always be perfect, but it’s all we’ve got.

And love can transform anything into something beautiful, even a rusty, old drain cover.

Signs of love are everywhere, even halfway across the globe.

 

 

Grace: Wonder

This morning was one of those cozy times when I could have stayed under the covers for hours.  Something about the end of Daylight Savings Time made me feel justified to do the things I love, but lately haven’t had much time to do.

I slept in and lazily snuggled with my pillows, then made breakfast and watched Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday conversation. Today she interviewed Rob Bell, an author and pastor.  It was an interesting enough conversation, one that I listened to as I checked my social media sites. But then he said something that got my full attention.

We have this crisis of wonder.

He went on to say that wonder is the thing that lets you wake up in the morning and say to yourself with joy, “Guess what I get to do today?”

This is the big unnamed thing that has left me restless recently.  In all of our busyness, in the midst of doing everything we think we’re supposed to be doing to make a life, sometimes we actually forget to live a life.

I find myself trying to get through days and the sea of details they bring.  But getting through a day is not the same as living it.  You cannot find joy when your intention is simply, “If I just make it through today…”  There has to be more to life than that.

So, where am I missing the wonder?

Could it be in the swirl of leaves that were flying outside this morning while the wind blew, making it seem like I was in the middle of an autumnal verison of a technicolor snow globe?

Or is it in the deep envy I feel as I look at the Instagram feeds of the photographers, chefs and food stylists I follow?  Some pictures literally leave me breathless, as if they are beckoning me to pay more attention to my love of food and pictures, the lifelong passions that get neglected in the midst of my chaotic days.

Or is it possibly in my tiny kitchen, where I should cook more meals than I do, not because it’s one more “should” but because I actually am gratified and nourished by it?  Last night, armed with a new pie plate from my mother’s kitchen, I honored that by making this Apple Tart with Almond Cream.

Creating it made me happy.  Is that where wonder lies?

I looked out the window late this afternoon, my attention directed towards the sky.  As the darkness of the early evening descended, I caught a glimpse of blue sky, the last bit of afternoon holding on.  Right in the middle of all that blueness was a massive fluff of a cloud, beautifully lit up with a pink glow.

It was a magnificent sight.

As I sat thinking about wonder, it was as if the universe not only gifted me with beauty, but also with a thought to go along with it.

Ah, there it is.

Perhaps it’s always there.  Maybe we just need to be ready to see it.