grace from my Grace

Recently, it has felt like my family is in the energy of “the shit hit the fan.” When I used this descriptive expression in front of my analytical son, he questioned why anyone would throw shit at a fan! Granted, he made a valid point, but it was beside the point I was trying to make.

In one week’s time, Trey and I met with a bankruptcy attorney, Mason had is first fender bender (in Trey’s car) on the highway, Connor got a triple ticket driving back from Boulder, our garage door quit working despite three attempts by a repair man to fix it which meant that our cars were parked in unusual places and Mason backed his car into my car (so he banged up all three of our cars!), my radiator sprung a leak and had to be replaced, Mason decided to quit competing for his studio (although he plans to continue his dance training) causing friction with his studio owners and his parents, and my sister is in excruciating back pain and will have back surgery on Wednesday. Shit...is hitting the fan! What a mess!

Gracie seems to be the only one in our family with her act together. Don’t take me wrong because she is, after all, a 13 year old hormonal 8th grader who doesn’t care for her parents much anymore and who is prone to frequent unpleasant outbursts of negative dramatic emotion, but somehow her life is rocking along smoothly and successfully. Go figure.

In the solitude of my car (actually Trey’s because my radiator was kaput) over a 17 hour drive home from Chicago, I embraced Grace-like behavior. I screamed and cussed at the top of my lungs, I bawled like a baby, and I threw many temper tantrums...for hours. And then I was better. Instead of bottling up all the stress and frustration and anger and fear I felt about all of these predicaments, I expressed the deep reservoir of my emotions in the moment, releasing the negative and freeing up space in me to see the bigger picture, to gain a healthy and balanced perspective, and to find peace. Gracie is on to something. It worked! 

Although the onset of the teenage years can seem like hell, I just tasted a little bit of heaven by reverting back to my teenage-ness! I discovered grace from my Grace.