I’ve been working on the 8th book of the Walkerville Desires series. There’s a new character in town who’s made some rather ‘bad’ choices. I find myself really liking her egocentric destructive behavior. I am also having fun as she slowly grasps she has some choices to make if she can only get out of her way.
Maisie, my reluctant Walkerville newcomer, is in a state of grace even as she kicks and screams, ‘I still wanna do self-will!’ She is discovering that the choices she made as a 15 year old bad girl doesn’t mean she has to continue to live that way. Pretty rough reality when you’re 37 years old.
Her state of grace, when she can slow down, is a clear unconditional SOMETHING that she feels from people who barely know her. Ah, and that’s her fear. All of these people will find out how flawed she is and how she really is not good enough. Oh, if she only knew these Walkervillians!
What she doesn’t realize (and maybe she never will, I don’t know, as she hasn’t told me—and yes, my characters talk to me) is that Walkervillians know that in order to keep their own grace, they have to give it away. Grace is uncountable.
For many of us, when we’re giving ‘it’ away in order to keep ‘it’ (whatever that ‘it’ is for you) our giving is unconditional, there are no strings attached. We do this because that’s what we do. We don’t keep score. We don’t collect stamps. Grace.
To give unconditionally can create a synergy. From me to you to her. From you to me to him. Something else that may come to fruition as a result of these actions is a deep sense of gratitude from ourselves to ourselves. Grace.
Soon Maisie will wake up and decide for herself. In the meantime Walkervillians will support her and give what they can, be it a kind word, an encouraging smile, a place to stay because they know that Maisie really is good enough. Her journey, just like ours, is to know that about ourselves. Grace.