What does it mean to give ourselves grace?
This question has really come to me in the last week and a half or so as I celebrated and brought communities and groups together to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Tonatzin,
The week of December 12th.
And it was a week of amazing messages,
Transformations,
Transitions,
Connections,
And for me,
The big message,
The big message that was so entrenched in the Divine Feminine was what does grace look like in practice?
And so I bring it here to this audio to share with you because it's so resonant for me right now.
And in this time,
In these times,
I think we yearn for how to practice the wisdom of our souls.
In my work,
I call that making soul.
It's inspired by Nahua or Aztec philosophies and that of a Chicana theorist,
Gloria Anzaldua.
Making soul is about putting into the world expressions of our most authentic selves,
Our truths,
Our wisdom within.
That could look like putting it out as our purpose,
As caregivers,
Whatever energia,
Whatever energy that expression holds.
I invite you to consider how your unique expression of the world could include grace.
I make soul by giving myself grace through asking a question.
And that question came to me today.
I was forced into,
Not forced,
That's too strong.
The universe spirit,
The Divine Feminine,
Guadalupe Tonatzin,
Invited me,
Let's say that,
Invited me through technological glitches when my retreat started and technological glitches when my practica with my dear collaborator and comadre,
Alicia,
Started.
I think she was really inviting me.
Guadalupe Tonatzin was inviting me to give myself grace in practice,
To include in my expression of my soul the practice of giving myself grace.
And this morning,
It came to me,
The question,
What does grace look like in practice,
In my life?
And so I invite you to consider this question alongside me.
What does it look like in the day-to-day to put practice in place in your life?
Spiritual practice in place through grace.
I'll share with you what came up for me today because it's profound and it really speaks to my own wounds and shadows.
For me,
Giving myself grace in practice looks like reminding myself in all instances that I am enough,
My actions are enough,
And how I show up is enough.
Interestingly,
It came through a dog walk.
You never know when these transmissions or these insights will arrive,
But it was just a simple question,
The day-to-day,
Right?
The spiritual actions,
Which I think about in terms of and write about in terms of spiritual activism,
Right?
How are we tender and loving and accepting and compassionate to ourselves the way that the spirit is,
Guadalupe Tonatzin,
Whoever your expression of the feminine divine is?
And so mine came to this question of,
Is that going to be a long enough walk for my dear Mojo,
Our pup?
Is 15 minutes enough?
And it came screaming to me in the wind and the leaves and the sounds of the rain dropping outside,
It's enough,
You're enough.
And it was just so symbolic of the continual questioning throughout my life of,
Is this enough?
Is it okay?
Is it good enough?
Oof.
And so with this reflection,
I share with you that yes,
Yes,
Whether it be a 15 minute walk with a dog,
Whether it be a book that was recently completed and it will come out into the world soon,
Whether it's how I interacted with my kiddo this morning that didn't feel all that great and I know I'd like to be more light,
The answer is yes,
It's enough.
I'm enough.
And for me,
That's giving myself grace.
That's reminding myself that I am the divine.
And when we give ourselves grace,
When we do the inner work of inviting love for ourselves,
Of caring for ourselves,
We do as Gloria Anzaldua says,
We change ourselves.
And when we change ourselves,
As she says,
We change the world.
It's the essence of spiritual activism.
So the inner work is really important because we are children of the divine.
We are the creator.
By virtue of that,
It is our birthright to love ourselves.
And again,
When we do that,
When we do that,
The energy flows to those around us,
To the world around us.
And so I hope that that can be a reminder that yes,
You,
We are enough.
