Over the next few weeks I will be focusing on a word of the day drawn from a list created at the beginning of January. Each word was chosen to serve as a guide to inspire and inform my steps through 2020. If you are just joining me now and want to look in on earlier posts on this topic, you will find links to each at the end.

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My grandson, Hollis, is practicing his letters. Currently he is captivated by a sort of coloring book that focuses on the big picture of such things—the uppercase letters of the alphabet. Each plastic-coated page is dedicated to a letter, and on that page there are 4 of the same uppercase letter in a row, all outlined with dashes. The task for little hands is to trace the letter with a washable marker that can be wiped off with a wet cloth, making it possible for the owner of those little hands to practice again. And again, and again, and again.

Grace is a lot like that.

It is a chance for us to wipe the slate clean and try it again. And again, and again, and again. It is also an opportunity for us to allow others to wipe their slates clean and try again too.

If there was one word, and one word only, for me to choose as a daily traveling companion, I think it would have to be this one. Life is nothing if not a maze of grace. Some days I seem to get it all right. I show up as the kind of person I aspire to be and bring what I have to offer to the day before me. Other days I get it so wrong it feels like I will never recover. Most days are a combo plate of the two.

Grace is the washable marker that traces the dashes that outline my days.

Again, and again, and again.