I ask every day, upon waking up and as I drift off to sleep, “Show me my place? What is the part I can play in this time of global distress and awakening?”
One of my super powers, I often proudly claim, is that I make people cry. I consider it the greatest confirmation and validation of the success of my facilitation sessions, retreats and ceremonies, when I see, hear and feel tears start to fall. WHY you might ask? What kind of mean spirited person are you Ms Grace?
Let me explain briefly and then allow the ever, so much more eloquent John O’Donohue to illuminate this odd calling. I seem to have the gift of being able to sense the gesture, the words, the music or even the humor that easily reaches in past the barriers, masks, and numbness that so often armors people’s hearts.
I walk around in this world of ours, pretty much always looking for what touches my heart the most deeply. So, so many things do. Nature of course, the laughter of a baby, the kind gesture between strangers, a moment of profound, human vulnerability. And what touches me the most deeply, that makes me cry every single time, is the visible sign of Invisible Grace. The rainbow, the hummingbird, the seemingly magical synchronistic appearance of an answered prayer. These visible signs that assure me, “You are not alone! You are held in the embrace of grace. There is nothing you need to do to deserve the blessings of your life but simply to trust and open to them.”
This has become the “calling.” To help people participate in the experience of being blessed. To help people make themselves available for the grace that is always ready to be bestowed. A blessing is an invocation. A calling, a request for the benediction of the Divine upon our lives. The moment the blessing comes alive, is the moment we have that sudden or gentle experience that our heart is being deeply, profoundly touched. We know, without being able to explain it, that the presence of Invisible Grace has arrived, or perhaps more accurately, that we have opened to it.
As John O’Donohue wisely explains, we are most available for these moments of benediction in what he calls the “Threshold” A moment when life changes, perhaps simply, like the arriving home and literally crossing through the doorway into our home, leaving the busyness of the day and world behind as we enter our sanctuary. Perhaps we are welcomed home by our dog or cat, our family or even silence, leaving one world and entering another. Often the simple hug, wag of a tail, “Hi!” or turning on of a lamp becomes the gesture of blessing. The bigger threshold, is of course, when life suddenly changes. When the comfort of familiarity, predictability, sameness, shatters. Suddenly life is not as we knew it and we stand in the threshold between the known and the unknown. This is the moment when blessings are most needed. What are the practices, the gestures, the words, the music, the emotions that send up our request for help, protection, and “help me Jesus! I ain’t a praying man, but help me Jesus!” prayers?
If you are not sure, or want support in creating a blessing ceremony for yourself as you face this THRESHOLD that our entire world is crossing, please reach out.
Life as we have known it is changing. We are not in control and we know not what is coming. What we can be certain of, is that we are not alone and however vulnerable, anxious or terrified we may feel, we can also dare to trust that we are embraced by benevolence. It is my greatest honor to help you to know this, not just as a thought or a concept but viscerally and in the depth of your being. Together we can create a sweet, beautiful experience that will touch your heart, something we can do together over the magic of live streaming, or something you can take and create on your own. The greatest visible sign of Invisible Grace that I know of. May I touch your heart?
Warning… you might cry. 🙂
Love and Blessings to each and every one of you.
Grace
John O’Donahue
“The time has come to cross.
To acknowledge and cross a new threshold is always a challenge. It demands courage and also a sense of trust in whatever is emerging. This becomes essential when a threshold opens suddenly in front of you, one for which you had no preparation. This could be illness, suffering or loss. Because we are so engaged with the world, we usually forget how fragile life can be and how vulnerable we always are.
It takes only a couple of seconds for a life to change irreversibly. Suddenly you stand on completely strange ground and a new course of life has to be embraced. Especially at such times we desperately need blessing and protection. You look back at the life you have lived up to a few hours before, and it suddenly seems so far away. Think for a moment how, across the world, someone’s life has just changed – irrevocably, permanently, and not necessarily for the better – and everything that was once so steady, so reliable, must now find a new way of unfolding.
Though we know one another’s names and recognize one another’s faces, we never know what destiny shapes each life. The script of individual destiny is secret; it is hidden behind and beneath the sequence of happenings that is continually unfolding for us. Each life is a mystery that is never finally available to the mind’s light or questions. That we are here is a huge affirmation; somehow life needed us and wanted us to be.
To sense and trust this primeval acceptance can open a vast spring of trust within the heart. It can free us into a natural courage that casts out fear and opens up our lives to become voyages of discovery, creativity, and compassion. No threshold need be a threat, but rather an invitation and a promise. Whatever comes, the great sacrament of life will remain faithful to us, blessing us always with visible signs of invisible grace.
We merely need to trust.”
GRACE MACLEOD 