Cocooning

I need constant reminders that it's okay to be messy, imperfect, broken, and untamed. My instinctive reaction to any sort of unravelling is: Grab on. Double-fist it. Try, try, try to straighten things out (if only in my mind.) When life gets complicated, I'm the one stretched and strung out like Salt Water Taffy.

Lately, it's been issues with my youngest son. He challenges me to get comfortable with "not perfect," "persistent" and "puzzling with no answers." And when I can't figure him out, I have a hard time being gentle with myself and simply letting go.

Last night I was watching a re-run of TNT's Saving Grace. As I fell in love with Grace all over again (the main character played by Holly Hunter) I was reminded to welcome unexplainables and unfixables, to find and live a more ferocious, determined love, to live large, laugh hard, and "embrace my grace."

One of the Saving Grace episode trailers is a clip of Grace--in all of her sensuous, bull-headed, broken, rough-around-the-edges, multi-faceted beauty and complexity--narrating the ways she "embraces her grace." Watching that clip was like receiving a wash of personal forgiveness for all that I'm not and all that I hope to be. Listen to Grace's gutsy honesty:

" I want to bust the world right open, the way you do when you're filled with youth. . . .

I want to engage with people and lovers, family, fellow cops and enemies. . .

I want to be physical and I also want to ask the big questions. . .

I want to taste the taste, and fix the problems. . .

I want to run head-long into chaos and bad guys and darkness and pranks and fun, and laugh, laugh, laugh. . .

I want to be the best friend and I want to be the greatest Aunt. . .

and the most complicated daughter. . .

I want to be the mystery in the room and. . .

I want to be numb. . .

Embrace your Grace."


Embracing grace starts with embracing what's human: Drop the masks. Make the mistakes. Live in the moment (but argue with the state of it if you must). Ask for help. Admit you're wrong about being right. Stammer over the small miracles. Jump for joy when justice prevails. Feel what you feel, but be open to thinking differently.

What would be on your Grace-trait list?

Perhaps for my next post I'll share my own list. I'm inspired. . .

To learn more about my favorite television show, or to see how others are embracing their grace, go to http://www.embraceyourgrace.com/