Finding Grace Through Gratitude
Truthfully, I’ve always struggled to give grace the definition it deserves. To explain the enormity of the beauty, fluidity and gentle power that encompasses grace. So what exactly does it mean to be graceful?
I spent the majority of my teenage years and early 20s in search of this answer as a competitive and then professional figure skater. I learned how to make challenging and terrifying movements look effortless. To give the appearance of floating across the ice. But looking back, it wasn’t the picture perfect moments that most embodied grace, because those fool us into believing grace is easy and not messy.
It was the shake-you-to-your core falls, when you didn’t want to keep going but somehow you mustered the strength and courage to peel yourself off of the ice and just try again.
It was the letting go of the mistake that JUST happened, when all you wanted to do was fall apart, so that you could give your full attention to whatever limited time you had left in your 3 minutes on the ice.
It was in the sitting with your own pain of not performing well enough and choosing to cheer your teammates on, anyways.
It was the constant battle against your own self-doubt and worth, and showing up day after day.
Grace is most potent in the moments that we are forced to sit with the shakiness, the building anxiety, and the crumbling heartbreak. It is then that we recognize the opportunity we are being given to simply lean in and heal.
To lean into the discomfort of failure and rejection.
To lean into the fear of never being good enough.
To lean into the hurt of the judgements you keep heaving upon your shoulders.
To stop abandoning yourself when you are less than perfect.
Grace shows up when you lean in and surrender.
To the outside observer, this may look like moving through life without hardships. But in truth, the internal barriers of fear and discomfort are often the toughest to break through. Grace lives in the in-between spaces of where we were, where we are, and where we want to be. The spaces that are uncomfortable yet bring us to the edge of breakthrough.
If we learn to surrender to grace, we begin to move freely.
Grace is the guiding force of our lives, bringing us just as smoothly up the mountains as back down it. We may not always know the path ahead, or the way back home, but you can be damn sure that grace will be there every step along the way saying:
“I see where you are, and I love you anyways”.
Read. That. Again.
Damn.
The courage it takes to lean into ourselves and believe that we are enough. To meet you where you are and give you room to breathe. That is grace and it is deeply woven with gratitude.
Grace is the power and beauty of the present moment, no matter how far from perfect. Gratitude gives us the eyes to recognize it. And so by practicing gratitude, we inextricably find grace.
Gratitude is a practice that turns what we have, into enough. To find peace and beauty in this moment, as it is and as we are.
And so this week, I encourage you to start with gratitude. Grace will and always has been by your side, but sometimes we have to take a step back to tap into it. So find the ordinary joy. Embrace the far from perfect moments. Let go of the “never-enoughs” and always looking ahead.
You may just surprise yourself at how gracefully you start to move through you life by simply surrendering to what is and embracing gratitude for what we have been given.