WHAT IS GRACE?
The official explanation from the dictionary:
Noun: Simple elegance or refinement of movement.
Verb: Do honor or credit to (someone or something) by one’s presence
For others Grace is spiritual, completely intertwined with their God. But for me, at this very moment, Grace embodies two very special ladies in my life. Two women who are courageously battling cancer: One breast, the other lung. Both are equally challenging, both are equally frustrating and both are equally unfair.
I’m watching one fight from afar, mostly through dispatches from my mother. We have already watched her take on and seemingly beat breast cancer a few years ago. But this past week, the beast returned with a vengeance. She’s determined to fight again, currently summoning the will and strength to push the monster away, to quell the storm that is raging inside her. I’m praying from afar.
The other warrior I see often, or as often as I can. My last visit was just yesterday. She looked beautifully frail. We talked for hours, just she and I in her living room. I mostly spoke, she listened intently, asking questions about my family, my job and my happiness. I could tell the conversation was exhausting her, so I suggested she rest. But she pressed me to keep going and so I did. It was the least that I could do because she has done so much for me, so much for my family.
When I left her home to make the 40 minute drive back to mine, a song came on the radio. A song that I’ve heard a million times, a song that I know by heart. But this time, for the first time, I fully understood the lyrics. And it hit me so profoundly: I really don’t know life at all.
