I woke early one morning and had my cousin on my mind.
I brewed a pot of coffee which I knew would not be the kind of coffee my cousin would have brewed.
He had many passions in life and one of them was coffee.
The absolute best cups of coffee I've ever had are the ones he made for me.
The songs came in and out of my head while it was brewing with flashes of memories of his love and his sparkling smile.
I decided to head to the river to watch the rise of the sun.
Sitting in the stillness of the new day,
I considered his passing and how even with the stresses of society,
He always included his passions within everything he did.
I was the only person around with little or no activity on the water.
There were,
However,
Hundreds of dragonflies dancing in a beautiful swarm.
I'd never seen that many in one area before.
I sat next to the cool,
Still water watching the light glisten.
It was tiptoeing on the gentle ripples while the dragonflies continued their dance with the morning chorus.
It was at this time that an amazing and graceful heron landed on a tree next to me.
It stopped looking at its new surroundings.
At that moment I felt nothing other than the air on my face and a warm peace settling into my heart.
The heron moved a little and with a gentle lift took off.
As the heron disappeared,
Activity seemed to get jump started and the other birds started to sing with a faint knocking of woodpeckers in the distance.
The morning was rich and full like a tapestry of colour.
Everything in this world has varying shades and tones.
Artists use multiple shades and colours and tones to create depth and beauty.
These depths and tones bring forward different detail unseen before.
Because of these details,
Your eyes can travel across the same piece of art a million different times and you can still see something new and different.
In its simplest form,
The sunrise and the sunset are a representation of how shades and tones create detail.
In our world,
We need the sunrise and the sunset.
Both give life,
Love and vitality.
Nature needs the shade for the relief it gives from the heat.
We see things differently compared to each other.
We can all look at the same tree and see something quite different within it.
We can focus on the harsh effects of the winter or the blossoming buds and this is true of how we can view each other and also ourselves.
I was taken back to my cousin's funeral where we had sung Amazing Grace and how walking with our inner light and inner dark from a place of grace allows healing and peace.
My mind went to the heron.
The heron was amazing and graceful.
It had brought the reminder that amazing grace is all around us.
We are often so clouded by the hustle of life that we do not see it.
It can be in the twinkle of someone's eye,
Within the deliciousness of that fresh coffee,
The delight within the sweet tune of a melody,
The touch of a hand,
A falling leaf,
Or in a bird's sweet chorus.
Grace is found in forgiveness of ourselves and others and for loving someone and seeing them for all that they are and for loving and seeing ourselves for all that we are.
Grace is amazing and it is a connection to life.
Grace is not based on materialism or the things of life.
It is in love,
Connection,
And the experience of life.
The fabric of our loved ones can be found within the dance of the dragonfly and the swoop of the heron's wings.
It is the essence of all and is always unending.
You can connect with those you've lost by pausing in stillness and holding your heart and your soul in the beauty of the moment.
Perhaps the biggest lesson from my cousin and many who have passed before him is to pause and take in the beauty of life,
To see the depth,
Tone,
And detail within our world and allow compassion for each other and ourselves,
To walk with an authentic heart,
And to live life with our doors and our heart open to the grace of life itself.
