"O momentary grace of mortal man,
Which we more hunt for than the
grace of God!"
Richard III (Act III. Scene IV)
What is grace? Grace is elegance, politeness, a generosity of spirit, the capacity to tolerate or forgive.
Being graceful, having poise and dignity is something we admire in others.
What do we need to do to be graceful? Wear the right clothes? Drive the right car? Walk with the right posture? Hang around with the cool people – in the hope that their sultry smoothness will eventually rub off on us?
We already possess this thing called grace. We only need to learn how to relax, take ourselves less seriously and it will surface - effortlessly. That is why it's called grace. It's natural.
Some people are better at trusting themselves than others, each of us have different situations in which we are comfortable enough to be ourselves. Some people are in this state for much of the time, others will pass through this life and only catch very brief glimpses of what it means to be human.
Children are graceful, the only times they are lose this grace is when they are consumed with fear, whether it is a bully in the playground, a teacher who takes themselves too seriously (ie lack grace) or an abusive parent who forgets they were a child once also. Grace resides in every child, in their every movement and every word, until we rob it from them.
Actors know how to be graceful, so do atheletes and artists, it comes to life when they abandon their fear and trust what is true inside them. We admire it, sit in dark rooms for hours together worshipping something that resides inside us all.
We may have forgotten what it means to be free, that's OK, but as long as we remember to forgive ourselves and cease bullying ourselves, grace is ready to surface. The challenge with grace is that the less we try the more we are. In a busy world ridden with rushing and doing, this challenge is tougher to bear than it should be.
"He hath a daily beauty in his life
That makes me ugly"
Othello (Act V, Scene I)
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