~ More Difficult Than I Ever Thought It Would Be ~

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches on the soul ~ e. dickenson. 
{Available in Etsy shop}

~ reminding myself that life is one moment, one step, at a time and there is grace for all the stuff that I fall down in and grace for everything that is so much more difficult than I ever thought it would be twenty years ago when I thought I could do anything and everything with perfect excellence ~

~ thinking today about grace ~

~ God's grace that catches me when I fall and sets me back on my feet again ~

~ receiving that grace ~

~ gracing myself ~

~ rather than shaming myself ~

~ gracing others ~

~ rather than thinking they should have that fixed, under control, handled ~

~ knowing I need it ~

It's why I placed my artwork here above my

grace-needing kitchen sink

~ because it's one of those places I most need grace ~

~ grace has me thinking ~

~ about how life is more difficult than I ever thought it would be ~

~ kind of like how before a person has kids . . .

they know how they will raise them,

and how those kids will behave ~

~ until their own child is humbling . . . making a person eat their own words ~

~ I've got grace for mamas. ~

Grace for those that couldn't nurse and gave up.

Grace for those that nursed beyond what social rules said was ok.

Grace for those with fearful, cautious, obedient, clingy kids.

And grace for those with courageous, determined, button-pushing, line-crossing kids.

Grace for those whose kids are constantly fighting and wondering . . .

will they even be friends when they are adults????

Grace for those whose kids are adults . . . and aren't even friends.

~ grace has me thinking ~

~ about those who went for their dreams with all the wrong motives ~

~ and failed and beat themselves ~

~ like a body tossed against the rocks by the waves of the sea ~

~ sacrificing what was important ~

~ I've got grace for those with broken dreams ~

~ and those who dared to dream a new dream ~

~ grace for those who dare to stand up again after being broken ~

~ grace has me thinking ~

~ about how it is easy to judge a life I am not living ~

~ grace has me thinking ~

~ about how I used to feel so guilty about crying in front of my kids ~

~ about showing weakness, tears, vulnerability in their sight ~

~ how I used to be afraid of breaking in my own sight ~

~ afraid of failure ~

~ yet how I have learned that we all break sometimes ~

~ and life goes on ~

~ and God's grace puts me back together more beautiful than before ~

~ gives me grace for others ~ compassion ~

~ grace shows my kids that breaking, failure, and weakness does not need to stop you forever ~

~ it's not the end of the world ~

~ I used to be determined not to break ~ not to show weakness ~

~ But I have found grace in brokenness

that allows the false and the temporary to crack and fall off

to reveal the deeper

foundation

character

truth

that lies beneath.

The brokenness bathed in grace

lets the real-ness,

the authenticity

come forth.

And the broken masks fall away

to beautiful truth . . .

maybe messy,

maybe imperfect,

maybe shabby,

maybe limited,

maybe not able to do it all,

maybe not having it all together,

but beautiful, authentic, true,

bathed in grace.

I love what my friend & mentor Joan C. Webb says,

"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful."

~That's grace.~

{Love her book The Relief of Imperfection}

Linking with these inspiration artists here: