Posts Tagged ‘grace|quest-magazine-2015-06’

Grace is one of those words whose meaning has been diffused by so many strands of religious tradition that it is hard to use without confusion.

My mother tells how when I was in grade school I wanted to take dance lessons, so she enrolled me in ballet. Although I approached the activity with forceful energy and my typical incorrigible enthusiasm, I lacked grace.

There are many ways to experience the idea of divine “grace.”

Sometimes they just happen: grace-full moments; gifts from something beyond myself.

Almost every Wednesday morning at my Lutheran school, we sang this song. No one taught us what the words meant, but over time I figured out that grace was somehow connected to a mysterious thing called the Holy Spirit, or, as I was first taught, the Holy Ghost.

No one has ever had more inspiration or fun at their job than I’ve had over my almost-fifteen years with CLF. My colleagues on the staff are downright fabulous—so caring and committed, so daring, so willing to experiment and fail forward.

In “The Lanyard,” one of my favorite poems by Billy Collins, he describes making a plastic lanyard to give his mother.

That the CLF hosts a weekly chat show called The VUU?

It was my good fortune to grow up in the midst of human graciousness. I am reminded of my father, whose practice when visiting Mexico was to patronize street vendors and bargain up.