Someone asked me recently what I most wanted from a spiritual life, what I most wanted in my life. Was I looking for God? Peace? I answered quickly – surprising even myself – that what I most wanted from my spiritual life was grace. A life of grace, of beauty and elegance in form, manner, motion, action and mind. In theology, grace is the love and mercy given us by God. In think in the secular life, it is the manner in which we live. Move away from anger and frustration and confrontation. Take responsibility for the choices and decisions we make. Grace when we are taxed. Grace when the price of gasoline goes up. Grace in our dealings with other people, no matter how frustrating or disappointing.

Grace is a state of mind, I think. An appreciation of the good things in life. Someone wrote me that she couldn’t bear to look at photos of Rocky, his life was cut short, it was just too awful. How sad, I thought. For me, grace is appreciation for his good and long life, the ability to be joyous about it rather than grieve. Grace was the way in which I told a telemarketer to please stop calling my house, it was disturbing to me while I work. Grace is not complaining whenever gas or food prices rise, or when a bill comes. But to be grateful for the gas that powers my car, the food I cook and eat, the bill that turns this computer on.

This is the choice, then for me. To live my life in complaint and lament, in resentment,  regret and anxiety, or to savor the many good things to have and hope for. Grace is hope, the ability to dream, to imagine a good and better life. Grace is faith in the better parts of the human spirit. In human connection. When I pursue a spiritual life, I am seeking the grace that comes from the love of oneself, the love of other people, of animals, and of the creative spark, the sacred light in all of us. Grace is for each of the days I have left, and my care to use them well.