Spot of Grace

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving, human soul on another.
GEORGE ELIOT

Join the revolution of secret angels. Who says you need feathers? I want every child born into this world to be blessed, as I was, by someone who could see his or her uniqueness. I want every person alive to remember the legacy of dreams, prayers, sweat, and hard-earned wisdom running through the river of our blood.

Poet and theologian John O’Donohue defines soul as the place where the intimate and the infinite meet. I believe my grandmother would say this is the exact location of the spot of grace. In my experience, it is also the place that seeds our greatest potential for influence.

Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it empowers us
to develop courage; to trust that courage, and build bridges with it; to trust
those bridges, and cross over them so we can attempt to reach each other.

Not just a special few are born with this capacity; it resides in each of us. I call it spiritual courage. It is choosing to grow the spot of grace in yourself and others on behalf of what is healthiest in the world. It is refusing to humiliate yourself or allow anyone else to suffer that diminishment. Ultimately, it is choosing to do with your life something that enhances freedom and elevates human dignity. Simply put, spiritual courage is the courage to care.

I’m becoming more and more myself with time. I guess that’s what grace is. The refinement of your soul through time.

JEWEL

“Follow your heart, and you’ll always enjoy the life you created!”

drop like pebbles into the ponds of each other’s souls, and the orbit of our ripples continues to expand, intersecting with countless others.

JOAN BORYSENKO

When inspired by a grand purpose, a wonderful project, your thoughts shatter their bonds; your mind travels beyond limitations; your consciousness extends in all directions; and you discover a new and amazing world. Hidden forces, talents and faculties spring to life and you find yourself to be far greater than you ever dreamed you could be.

PATANJALI

What I learned in my first year of teaching with Rasheem is that school and teachers must offer something unconditional: faith. Faith that the student, no matter how awful, rude, or vulgar he may have acted on Monday, can be entirely redeemed by his behavior on Tuesday. We’ve got 180 days a year to hope they can learn to grow that faith in themselves.