making space for grace

Hold space and invite grace is the opening passage of Chip Conley’s A Year of Wisdom. He speaks of creating spaces of time and environment in your life for magic to happen.

For me, my best time to achieve glimmers of grace is in the early morning. This is why silence upon waking is so important for me. Quiet time to observe and reflect upon my slowly awakening thoughts, and the slowly awakening world around me. Some mornings grace comes to me from the printed page. Other times grace alights when I watch birds at the feeders outside my window (always the Canyon Towhees are the first to arrive, usually followed by a Dark-eyed Junco or two). And inevitably grace accompanies me on my early morning walks (literally my Dawn walks), when it always feels like a little moment of magic when I notice some small beauty in the world, like frost etched on the veins of a brown leaf… leaf shadows on sidewalks… tiny tracks in snow….

I have the luxury of a great deal of solitude; in many ways I’ve designed my life around my need for solitude. So it’s easy for me to find long passages of silence each day for welcoming in grace. Others have far more frenetic lives, and are unable to soak in even a few minutes of silence each morning, let alone an hour or two.

A few moments later I found myself looking around noticing other circles in the room….

I am sitting among a chorus of circles!

And as I stepped into my kitchen and other rooms, I noticed yet more. What delight!

These are hardly life-changing observations. Yet they pull me for a few moments into the now, into delight. I am dwelling neither in the past nor the future, but rather in this moment.

Anytime that happens I’ve made space for grace. Do that enough times, and maybe it is life-changing.

Join me here and notice the circles. Only please be silent when you do.

⭕️ ⭕️ ⭕️ ⭕️ ⭕️ ⭕️

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