“Some days, doing the best we can may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect—on any front—and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else” ~ Mr. Rogers ~

It’s not rocket science.  It doesn’t come with an instruction manual nor suggestions for improvement.  You don’t have a required license or certification to navigate it.  It’s not neat and tidy, even on the good days.  Life is messy, slow, awkward, funny, fast, puzzling, serious, rewarding, full of adventure, and frankly, just so daily!

This is where grace (and gravy) gently enter the scene.  As a recovering perfectionist, I work daily to hold myself (and others) to a standard of grace, and not a standard of perfection.  Living with an elderly parent who struggles to remember simple tasks is one example of how grace weaves powerfully into our daily lives.  Daddy is dad, but then he’s not; he needs assistance at times even when he refuses to ask for the help.  He wants to be independent and yet he’s fully aware he requires some guidance.  It’s a pivotal tipping point when, as daddy has noted on many occasions, “the child becomes the parent and the parent becomes the child…”  As to the gravy part, daddy loves a cream gravy and still makes a mean batch of it when pressed.  While I do my personal best to accommodate his sophisticated palate, he shows grace every time when it doesn’t have his required consistency.  You see, Daddy has spent my lifetime favoring me with grace (often when I least deserved it and always when I’m making his cream gravy); it’s an opportunity for me to actively demonstrate the same with him… and most days, I do it gratefully and with a cheerful heart. 🙂

So here’s your question on Day #33:  How will you be gentle with yourself and gratefully practice grace while remembering you’re doing the best you can, and others are too? 

Gracefully and gratefully be kind to yourself while doing the best you can and helping others to do the same.  After all, as Helen Keller valiantly observed:  “When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another…”  Let’s continue to help each other by allowing those precious moments when the cream gravy of our personal best soaks in and beautiful grace shines forth, my friends.

PS:  Vanya Lynn, I need some of your biscuits and gravy please!  🙂