So – I was driving down towards the end of Burloak Drive in Burlington this morning, to where the road joins Lakeshore Rd. and Lake Ontario is straight ahead. While driving, I was busy - mulling worry and sadness, with thoughts bantering around about our beloved Canada and the awful incidents that occurred yesterday, thinking about this possible outcome, that possible outcome, when – right in front of me – my eyes and thoughts were jolted into arrest - splendor jumped off the water surface ahead of my car. The millions of sun-diamonds dancing there, plus the incredibly beautiful music on my car radio, made my sorry old head do a double back flip and land squarely into a feeling of a warm melting pot, with this phrase popping out like a neon sign into my consciousness: “Gifts from God”. The transformation of my state of mind was remarkable. I was so grateful. These gifts of beauty were gifts of Grace.
We must always look issues, conflicts and things that need to be resolved square in the eye. But, if at the same time, we keep “open” enough to “see”, remarkable gifts of all kinds of grace await us that help us to cope and work our way through the nasty stuff. Beauty is a gift that is rarely hard to find if looking, and sometimes squares you even when you aren’t (like today).
I don’t know what is awaiting us in our future as Canadians, and how these issues will play out. But, I have found, at all times, that beauty is a great comforter - or more accurately – a gift from the Great Comforter and a gift available pretty much always. I know that if I make myself available to “multitask” and notice it, it keeps me level within turbulence and I can therefore be a much more effective, can help somehow and be a part of the solution. I am connected, calmed and grounded.
Can you find grace and beauty in the nooks and crevices of your day? In a smile, a phrase, someone’s kindness or idiosyncrasy, a joke, a song, or a brush with nature? Bless all Canadians with balanced vision to see beauty, truth and light at the same time as being confronted with this darkness. It is so helpful. It sure helped my perspective on such a very difficult day as today. I think looking for and getting balanced vision is something Canadians do quite well.