Just what IS grace these days?

"Grace" is a word getting a lot of press these days as is "divine feminine", "women's leadership", etc. and while catchy as sound-bites, just how the heck do they apply to life in the real world (translates to already too full schedules as women? As an exacerbated client shared this morning as I was teaching her about "soul language" "it's like having to learn a whole new language and I am already overwhelmed!".
In my work with women, I update words and concepts for both more congruence in today's world and for the word's offer of it's power in our daily lives. Often this means taking a word we have learned as a noun and updating it's relevance as a verb. For example, the word "grace"- which we learned was something one had (or did not) I teach is more a state of being, a dynamic we live in-in short, a verb.  And yes, it is like learning to learn a new language...so whassup?

We are changing and transforming from talking and knowing in our head to living and being our humanity-and divinity- in everyday life. Our language will reflect these changes ....the words of control and manipulation transforming into the language of faith and trust, the words of coercion and challenge transforming into the language of cooperation and opportunity, the words of "either-or" transforming into the language of "both-and", the limitations of our words giving way to the living grace of our heart and soul as human beings.

So next time you find yourself frustrated by "what used to be so" and now needing to change, congratulate yourself for noticing an invitation from your life to update and transform more into your "being".  Life offers in every one of her challenges, power within the challenge for meeting it.  When we choose to let go of life as a series of nouns and live our faith in life and of ourselves, we gain the grace of our divinity flowing through our humanity, the living gift of being a human.

Walking as a God/dess on Earth

With temperatures about freezing for the first time in months-and our April Fool's Day snowfall melting-I took myself on a walkabout today on the land I live on. Winter's stay was long and harsh this year and I knew winter's damage would be compounded by the damage of hungry deer looking to stay alive with 4 feet of snow on the ground.

Splintered branches, young pines snapped in half, sides of young hemlocks nibbled mostly away, and cracked trunks of bushes I look forward to the blooms of, were the sights greeting me as I walked about in the warming sun of April. I sighed as I tagged the trees and bushes needing tending,  reminded again of the circle of life.

When I first become the steward of land I live on, winter's damage saddened me, and I did not know how to respond to the damage. I love trees and after a heavy snowfall, take my broom out to brush off bushes and branches bending almost in half with snow weight. I became more comfortable with pruning and cutting off the damage of winter after learning the cost of damaged limbs to the health of the rest of the tree. I became more comfortable with honoring my power as God/dess with my beloved green companions.

With our choices in life-with our beloved animal companions, with what we eat, with what we give our precious time and energy to-we choose what lives and what does not in our life.  And when we honor the trust of power given to us as human beings, we begin to honor how our actions-even the ones we call small-often have large impact in the world we are trusted to walkabout as a God/dess.