Quilting Bee of Folks #11

Isn't that beautiful!!!!

Good morning all!! I've been away for a few days - recovering from an unhappy tooth. I think I'm back functioning and feeling human today!! So.... I have laid out some lovely apple strudel this morning and scones filled with berries or raisins. There is also yogurt and granola if you would prefer. Some lovely fruit and herbal teas, yummmmm, and as always some delicious coffee - Kona today.
I have racked a quilt full of grace today, one that requires many hands. Thank you for gracing us with your wonderful self today. Please pull up a chair.

I was pondering the word grace this weekend, a word with so many meanings, yet so very powerful! Here is the dictionary meaning...
grace (grs)n.
1. Seemingly effortless beauty or charm of movement, form, or proportion.
2. A characteristic or quality pleasing for its charm or refinement.
3. A sense of fitness or propriety.
4.
a. A disposition to be generous or helpful; goodwill.
b. Mercy; clemency.
5. A favor rendered by one who need not do so; indulgence.

Well....I guess to me the most powerful part of this is number 5..although I'm not referring to the type that would be seen as indulgence so very much. But need. The types of things that are recognised by someone and filled for no other reason than being led to do so.

I think we often think of grace as something someone is genetically, you either are or you are not.. someone is graceful, full of grace, ballerinas are graceful. You know... not clumsy. But, the kind of grace I find the most amazing is the grace from the heart. I have been very blessed with grace over the last several years, sometimes it was just a little drip of honey, a hug, a small unexpected gift, sometimes, just that someone remembered me unexpectedly. Sometimes I have been given buckets full of the wonderful amber liquid!! Like when we were offered this house!!

I learned grace at some wonderful knees!! I am going to reprint this from an older post - as I think it is worth sharing again. Hope you don't mind.

I learned grace from Ola Mae. She came to our home in Tennessee twice a week to clean for my mother. I came along late in life for my parents, my Mom , although wonderful was in her early 50’s during these years and (I get it now) starting to do things in her life that fed her own soul. She was very busy. In the early 70’s in the South, being black was not an easy thing. There was still deep separation. Being from New York I was not prepared for this, nor did I understand why Ola Mae lived literally on the other side of the tracks in a shanty town. I was very fortunate to have been brought up in a very well off family. I have also experienced several years of deep poverty after my divorce. Knowing how it feels to be deeply poor & busy trying just to get by, her tolerance for me was amazing. I adored Ola Mae and it seems she felt the same about me. How she put up with this rich girl following her about the house, sometimes for hours, chatting her ear off is beyond me. But she spoke to me as though I was one of her own well loved children. She passed on her wisdom and soft words like gifts to me. My Mom and I went to her tiny home several times. My Mom took her eggs, garden produce and bags of clothing that no longer fit me. I seem to recall Christmas gifts for her children also. From the view point of someone with money and a good heart it seems like a good thing to do – and it is. But, what I did not learn until years later, how very hard it is to accept charity, no matter how well meaning the giver is. Again this woman of amazing grace, never let on if any of this was hard for her. What she gave me all those years ago was my guide through poverty. She never said it, but her grace as she offered us tea in her tiny humble kitchen taught me volumes.

I think in this busy world we forget just how very powerful a little grace is. As I read through the blogs everyday, I frequently see this word in action. Over and over again people who don't need to, maybe can't really afford to, have no real reason to... offer up grace to others who so dearly need it! Little drips of honey or big buckets! Lots of hands make quick work. Lots of worker bees here!!

So... my question for you today is....where do you offer up grace my bees? Would you like to share? What touches your soul, reaches out and asks your heart to offer up grace?

So... I'm off for some strudel and coffee - yummmmmmmmy. Thank you for being here today and offering me such wonderful grace with each and every comment! I do love my bees!! Namaste, Sarah