The Space Between...his Word and my life

...is quietly small and amazingly comforting.

This posting is a follow up to my last posting on grace.

Well over a year ago, on my Facebook account, a friend sent me a "flair" with a simple message: Gal 5: 22-23. I used to "rearrange" my flair all the time, but I haven't lately. This morning when I came across that particular one, I had to think..."what IS this verse?" When I looked it up, I was pleasantly surprised.

Gal 5: 22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I instantly was reminded of my post on grace. This is it. This is what I'm talking about.
How simply wonderful that I've had that simple affirming reminder "at my fingertips" for so long and that I found it again now, when grace is becoming such an important attribute to me.
I'm grateful.

The Space Between...should be filled with grace.

below are some thoughts on GRACE.  i didn't write these, a friend shared them with me...

life is a classroom. we are both student and teacher. each day is a test. and each day we receive a passing or failing grade in one particular subject: grace. 

grace is compassion, gratitude, surrender, faith, forgiveness, good manners, reverence, and the list goes on. it's something money can't buy and credentials rarely produce. being the smartest, the prettiest, the most talented, the richest, or even the poorest, can't help. being a humble person can and being a helpful person can guide you through your days with grace and gratitude.

it is not "if" we will lose the things we love, it is "when." with some, the loss comes in a major catastrophic event. for most, love is surrendered one piece at a time. a first childhood, a promising romance, the passing of a loved one and finally a child who leaves home. but as we lose, we can keep a deep knowing that in the presence of grace, love for the sake of love is eternal.

how you climb up the mountain is just as important as how you get down the mountain. and so it is with life, which for many of us has become one big gigantic test followed by one big gigantic lesson. in the end, it all comes down to one word. grace. it's how you accept winning and losing, good luck and bad luck, the darkness and the light.

The Space Between...Thanksgiving and Christmas

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas so much stuff happens that it's easy to see why the holidays are stressful and bittersweet for so many people.  This year - I'm one of those people.  

Thanksgiving was odd this year, and bittersweet really is the best way to describe it.  Missing spending part of the Thanksgiving holiday with Bramers and with my Dad, didn't really sink in until about 1:30 am on Friday after.  It was then that my body and mind were finally quiet from the day's many chores and stops.  Sharing the Thanksgiving meal with my sisters, my kids, my grandma and the Barbers was really nice.  Especially since we were last minute additions due to weather that stopped us from traveling north to see my Dad.  But those few hours spent in Schoharie were sadly missing for me this year.  And a Thanksgiving smile and squeeze between my husband and I was the biggest void of all. Friday after Thanksgiving found me once again surrounded by family - in a truly wonderful gathering of ALL my Barber relatives.  Hence the sweetness of that day came to remove the sour of the day before.

And now Thanksgiving is over.  My favorite of the holidays for many reasons, but mostly because it comes and goes with little fanfare and, save some cooking and cleaning, little stressful preparation.  Now it's full steam ahead to Christmas and all the little things that have become my Christmas-time routine.  The movies, the music, the decorations, the choosing of gifts, the planning to spend time with everyone.  Fitting it all in has always seemed like a chore, but happily done in the spirit of the season.  

This year though there will be a space...a space between me and those traditions.  I'll probably still do them.

I may watch the movies, I may listen to the songs.  I'll put up a tree even though I expect it will feel like there's a pine needle in my heart the entire time.  So I'll go through the motions.  "Fake it 'til I make it" as a friend would say. And pray that the space left by the absence of a great force, the space between me and this holiday, the space between Thanksgiving and Christmas - is filled with grace and peace and understanding.

And always with love.