Welcome to Gracefull Living. My hope is to share personal insights about life, faith and nature that will help you grow in spirit and relationship with your world. There are life lessons to be learned from so many things. From the writings of the Bible, mystics and other philosophers and authors, to lessons from nature, art and poetry, we can draw nuggets of truth that can help us live in truth, peace, love and personal fulfillment. I invite you to come with me on this journey toward a deeper, more grace-full self.
My name is Barbara and I am a retired church pastor. My goal in this blog is to look for grace in the world around us and let it shape, renew or even transform us into the people we were created to be. I hope that this journey will help you, too, learn to see grace all around you.
I grew up in a rural area on the upper Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. I sometimes say that my veins have river water running through them because the river was such a huge part of my early life. I was a country girl; climbing trees, building forts and doing all the wonderful things a child can do surrounded by woods and fields and water with my dog by my side.
Later in life, as God shaped and molded me, I came to be more people oriented. With spiritual gifts of empathy, compassion and shepherding, I entered ministry. Now I believe that I may have some wisdom to share, or at least an appreciation for, and an intentional desire, to see the world through the eyes of grace.
I invite you to come along with me as I look for meaning and message in everyday sights, sounds and experiences. My blogs will be responses to these various things. They will include quotes from wise people of various cultures, mystics, forefathers of faith, scripture, the arts, and impressions from God’s other book, the book of creation.
So come, take a “walk” with me. Let’s look and listen and share. Who knows what we may discover or how it might change us?
