At this moment we need grace because we have certainly not deserved to live on this beautiful planet, abundantly luscious for all of us if we could just be humble and share with each other the bounty of life. As if not enough, our food is becoming more artificial by the day. It might be a good thing to reflect on how power has destroyed the natural side of life. What is power really? One definition is ‘the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way,’ which is good in the sense of the power of speech if you have something beautiful to say. Or as in the power of love, when you have a lot of love to give and an open heart to receive. Or as in Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now the capacity to be truly present in life, to really live and be in the present moment.
When you think about it, life is always only now, and if you are not in the now at this moment, you most likely won’t be in the now when you get the car, the relationship, the promotion, or the mistress either. Or when you get the power. Each moment dies, and that moment never returns. If you’re always waiting to live until you have that special thing you desire, it may well be that you end up living your life without never ever really being there. And before you die you will say, when I get to heaven, then I will… I don’t believe anybody says, when I get to hell, then I will… Anyway, it will all be too late then, at least till the next lifetime.
The second definition of power is ‘the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events’, which is also good if your heart is in the right place. But the backside to power is that the more powerful, the more selfish an individual becomes, empathy goes out the door, and most likely they step into a zone of overconfidence, creating a mess for others and the world.
This is so apparent that even if you shut the TV off and close your eyes, you may still see it. Or at least feel it as the perspiration from the heat soaks your body during sleepless nights in a non-air-conditioned room. That is the moment when we need to invite grace to our consciousness. Grace is always there, just look up at the sun and the stars. Or down at the earth below your feet or at the purifying water that washes our unconsciousness each day.
You will see that if you really open your eyes, that there is only the grace. Grace is the nature of being fully alive and embracing the gift of living. Grace is the essence of Mother Earth; she gives everything even though we don’t deserve it. Grace is to know that we are all in this mess. Together. And it is together that we will slaughter the dragons and cross the oceans to a new world order.
