A Christmas Poem

Today is bittersweet.

Christmas is but an hour away.

Family is gathered.

Presents are under the tree.

The Celebration has begun.

However,

Today is also the anniversary

of losing someone I loved,

my beau's grandmother.

One year to this day

my father gave a beautiful eulogy for her.

He used as acrostic 

(as he loves to do):

G.R.A.C.E.

This word truly captivates her

She was lovely,

sweet,

generous,

joyful,

faithful,

artistic,

and

gracious.

It snowed today

and I cannot help but think

she sent it to us as a Christmas present.

She is my angel on my Christmas tree this year.

This evening I read a poem she wrote

in 1999 about Gramp-

about how he loved his wife through Alzheimer's disease.

It was beautiful.

Her words fell off the paper with such 

grace

and

dignity.

My heart melted 

at her poem from a typewriter.

She extended grace to everyone

including me.

She truly made me feel apart of her family.

Her legacy will live on in my heart

and I will always think of her

on the eve of Christmas

as she watches from a better place.

5 Graceful Things

This week 5 Graceful Things is dedicated with proper nouns that have "Grace" in their name that I love!

#1: Grace Kelly, I love old time actors and actresses. Sometimes I wish there were more actresses around like Grace Kelly.

#2: "Grace Like Rain": I love Todd Agnew's voice.

#3 "Amazing Grace" the movie: William Wilberforce's story of fighting slavery is so inspiring.

#4 Grace Cafe: My mom's coffee shop that closed in October 2008 and has recently  had someone commit to re-opening a new coffee shop there! (More details to come.)

#5: Grace, my mom: I love my mom, and I am so proud to have her name as my middle name!

-Beth

A Grace Period

According to Wikipedia (I know terrible source but...),  a "grace period" is a time past the deadline for an obligation during which a late penalty that would have been imposed is waived.

In other words, it is a time you or someone else allows you to mess up without consequences.

I think my grace periods for myself have become longer and for others shorter. I am not a fan of this new tendency of mine.

For example, this semester I have been LATE to everything. I blow it off like it is no big deal and say that I am living in polychronic time so all of the monochronic people need to just deal with it or become more culturally enlightened.

Weheatit

WHAT?!?!

That is not what I believe at my core. I believe we are supposed to love people how they want to be loved and interact within the bounds of the society we are in. 

In other words, I need to give myself less of a grace period and get my butt in gear. Being late does not speak highly of my character in Western society. Perhaps my discontentment of Western society leads me to rebel by pretending I was in a Latin country and being late all the time.

Whereas, I do want to treat people more important than the tasks at hand. I need to realize that I need to take my own advice and operate in a way that my culture (now matter how much I dislike it) values.

So therefore I need to decrease myself, and extend that grace to other people because that is what Christ would do.

-Beth

5 Graceful Things

So I stole this idea from my roomie, she has a delightful tradition of blogging 7 things she adores each Monday. I am going to blog on Wednesdays things that remind me of, are, or mean "grace".

Enjoy!

I think GRACE is...

We Heart It

Riding my New Bike to School Through My Lovely Neighborhood

Kudos to Roomie

Serving Customers with a Joyful Heart

We Heart It

A Gift I don't Deserve

I heart it.

Apologizing for Something When You Don't Have To

I heart it.

A Beautiful Ballerina

What things represent GRACE to you?

-Beth

A Graceful Apology

As many of you know, I am a die hard fan of the show GLEE. This show feeds my inner performer and gives me a creative outlet that I do not have at this time in my life. I know it is pretty "gleekly", but I follow most of the actors on Twitter. My favorite actress has always been Dianna Agron playing my favorite character, Quinn Fabray. I also follow Dianna's blog, which really shows her real personality, and I love that.


This Wednesday, I became a Dianna Agron fan for renewed reasons.


Just like her character in the show handled an unexpected pregnancy with grace, dignity, and integrity, Dianna did the same amidst a recent controversy.

Picture From

I was catching up on my Google Reader (which I am SO far behind in), and Dianna posted something for the first time in a long time. She talked about a controversy about a recent risqué photo shoot for GQ magazine November issue. I had not heard about this yet, but apparently, she, Cory Monteith, and Lea Michele posed for some controversial photos. Some parents were outraged on the sexy photos because of their characters on television are high school students.


To start off, I found the pictures, and they are surprisingly racy (especially Lea's). However, Cory is almost 30 and both girls are well into their 20's. They are adults and have every right to participate in any kind of photo shoot they want. Especially, since the show they are representing is not exactly a show for the whole family. GLEE poses some adult questions not suitable for young children.



Dianna had every right to ignore these parents concerns. No one would have blamed her for saying she was a big girl and she can do whatever she wants.


But she didn't. She apologized to those who were hurt by the photos, expressed regret, and looked to tomorrow. She admitted that the photo shoot idea was not her favorite but stood up for herself by saying she is an adult and can make her own decisions.


She handled this controversial issue in a very mature and GRACEFUL way, and I commend her for it.

"At the time, it wasn’t my favorite idea, but I did not walk away. I must say, I am trying to live my life with a sharpie marker approach. You can’t erase the strokes you’ve made, but each step is much bolder and more deliberate. I’m moving forward from this one, and after today, putting it to rest. I am only myself, I can only be me. These aren’t photos I am going to frame and put on my desk, but hey, nor are any of the photos I take for magazines. Those are all characters we’ve played for this crazy job, one that I love and am so fortunate to have, each and every day. If you asked me for my dream photo shoot, I’d be in a treehouse, in a wild costume, war-paint and I’d be playing with my pet dragon. Until then.." Dianna wrote in her blog. Read the whole blog at here.

GQ Photos

By the Grace of God

By the Grace of God.

This phrase is used so frequently in Christian circles. I am not sure I fully comprehend its significance. All I can muster is that because of God's grace (and ONLY by the grace of God) something happened.

If we assume this is the definition, it is by the grace of God that I have survived the past three weeks.

To start off, school is back in session, which means balancing homework and work and social life. On top of that, I was filling in for our baker at my workplace, while she was on vacation.

The first week was difficult to bear.

The second week was overwhelmingly filled with despair. I broke down into sobs more than any one person should probably in a given year let alone a week.

I was...
stressed
homesick
exhausted
forgetful
chronically late
clumsy
cranky
negative
hungry
hopeless

I was a complete shell of a human trying to accomplish both work and school.

But on Sunday I rested and planned. Planned for this week--a week that was filled with joy only by the grace of God. I still did everything I did the week before but I did it with much more grace than before. During one of my breakdowns, my mother prayed over me, and I remember her saying if I survived these crazy weeks, it would be through the grace of God.

I guess she was right. :)

~Beth

Grace in Friendships

So today, I did something daring and new. Leading up the event, I was petrified like a freshman on the first day of high school. I almost didn’t go. I almost through away my plans just because I was afraid. But I didn’t. To some, it may not seem like a big deal, but to me, it was monumental.

Tonight, I went to a benefit concert by myself, not planning to meet any specific person there, and only hopefully that someone would grant me the grace of a conversation.

Being a transfer student at a state university is tough, especially having a job and living off campus. It is hard to really get to know anyone outside of class or know how to get involved. I go through a range of emotions from being so enthusiastic to put myself out there to feeling completely defeated when someone forgets my name. But that is not how it should be, I learned that tonight.

The benefit concert was at a new local non-profit called Lemon Drop—all about promoting creative efforts in Springfield. The benefit concert was for to raise money for a young boy in Nepal to be able to return to his family. It was a good cause, so I thought why not.


I frantically searched for someone to go on this adventure with me, but everyone was busy. I saw that some people from my church, Emmaus, that I was acquainted with were attending on Facebook, so I prayed they would show up and possibly talk with me.


7:30 rolled around and my stomach got sick. I did not want to go. I didn't know what to wear. Where it was. Who was going to be there. I was going alone into a abyss of strangers.


Little did I know that if I gave myself and the people around me a little grace, I might actually form friendships.

The night was fantastic! The bands were fun. I bought a journal from India and two adorable photographs of children. But most importantly, I met people. A wonderful girl from my church introduced me to all these other people that go there. I sat a chat with some girls involved in campus ministries. I talked to a friend from a Bible study I visited and got introduced to her friend who studies Speech Pathology. 


All in all, I felt like I belonged--which is a feeling I don't think I have felt since high school drama club or every Wednesday when I relive those glory days via Glee on Hulu. 


I am so happy that I gave myself grace and put myself out there. I learned that GRACE is ESSENTIAL to forming new friendships, and I hope that those friendships will just continue to grow.

GRACE

"Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship" 

-Samuel Johnson quotes (English poet, critic and writer. 1709-1784)

My Middle Name is Grace

My middle name is Grace. My mom named me after herself. All my life I have wrestled with the concept of grace and what it is. Grace. It can describe a motion that is elegant and beautiful. It can mean to say a prayer before dinner. It can mean an undeserved gift.

I personally am quite clumsy. One look at my kitten heels and one would know that I tend to never look down at my feet when I am walking. I often joke after I trip, fall, or drop something, "My middle name is Grace you know".

Growing up in the Christian church, the word "grace" takes on a lot of different forms. It wasn't until I was older that I began to realize the fullness of God's grace and want that means.

This blog is going to explore all of these different definitions of grace and how I am learning to live in a more graceful manner each day.