Challenge Courage Grace and Will -- Grace

The other day I was walking along a rocky headland close  by the ocean.  I came across a twisted pine of quite good size that had lodged itself in a crack in the rock.  It seems out of place, far from the other trees and completely exposed to the wind and -- in winter storms -- to the waves.  In a twisted and low-slung and bonsai-like way, this tree is beautiful.

A 500 pound rock sits on the roots of this tree.   The tree's roots emerge from the back side of this rock, bare and scraggly.  The roots barely make it the 12 inches from there to the tiny crack from which the tree draws its life.  This "poor tree" must deal not only with wave and wind but also with a huge weight on its back that almost chokes its roots out of existence.  Yet without this weight, the "poor tree" would have washed away 10 times by now.  Without this rock, the tree could never reach this size, this level of energy, or this beauty.  The 500-pound rock, the exposed location, and the tree itself are all examples of grace.

Grace means ease. Life has a gift of ease in seeming difficulty. 

Grace is ours to embrace.

To the extent that the tree embraces its location, the tree can live, and live well -- live with ease.