Grace…

I like this word.
I like what it connotes and what images it brings to mind for me.
Openness.
Acceptance.
A comfortableness in one’s own skin – as in gracefulness. 

Grace has something to do with openness.
Openness to the people around me and to the moment that I have to live right now. An openness carved out of that never ending list of responsibilities and things that just must get done.  An ability or willingness to see and to hear and to pay attention.

And grace has something to do with acceptance.
Acceptance of who I am in this very moment.
Whether I am feeling great or not so great.
Energetic or sluggish.
An acceptance of who I am right now;
And not something or someone that I think I should be.
Or, that others think I should be.

And, I am envious of graceful people because I so often feel clumsy.
Not only when it comes time to dance, but also clumsy, sometimes, in my interactions with others.

I know others would define it differently, but grace, for me, has something to do with that which I know and name as God.  It is in those moments when I am open and I am paying attention and I am accepting of myself and I am grateful for the moment at hand that I stand in one of those thin places where ordinary life comes close to the Holy.  
And, in those moments…
When that happens…
I dance.