Grace

The thing that was given without being earned, and that you received without being able to explain it.

When someone extended generosity toward you at a moment you had not made yourself easy to help.

The unexpected reprieve — the extension, the second chance, the forgiveness that arrived unasked.

What arrived at the right time despite there being no particular reason it should arrive then.

A quality in yourself that you could not take credit for and could not have manufactured.

The way a situation resolved that no one could have predicted and no one could have forced.

When you were treated better than you deserved by someone who knew the full picture.

The kindness that arrived from an unexpected direction at the worst possible moment.

A capacity for compassion in yourself that surprised you when you needed it.

The doors that opened not because of effort but because of something that had nothing to do with you.

When the difficulty you had been bracing for simply did not arrive.

The moment you stopped trying to control something and it resolved itself.

What someone chose not to say or do, and the space that choice created.

The quality in your life that you inherited or stumbled into and could not account for.

When help appeared from a source you had never thought to ask.

A friendship that was given to you at a time you were not sure you deserved one.

The way that aging has sometimes brought ease where struggle once lived.

What the body restored to itself without intervention.

The fact of having survived something that others in the same situation did not.

Whatever it is you cannot name that has, more than once, arrived in time.