Grace has been on my mind a lot lately.
There are many definitions of Grace. The one that jumps out at me is two simple words, "a reprieve".
That is to say that Grace is a phenomenon in The Uni-verse that, even when we make all kinds of mistakes, when we mess up, when we fall down, we are given a reprieve from our mistakes.
I believe that the energy that runs The Uni-verse is Love. So, a way to capture this idea is to say that it is by the Grace of the Love of The Uni-verse that we can mess up time and time again and still make it through life happy and fulfilled. We were born to learn and tune into to this Love energy.
I can't tell you how many mistakes I have made. Everything from thinking food, drugs and alcohol were the solution to my unhappiness, to thinking my own self-importance (aka Ego) was more important than the well-being of my fellow brothers and sisters.
If this were an un-Loving Uni-verse, then putting my ego first, trying to fill myself up with things other than Love and many other mistakes, would have meant that I would have been doomed to a life of sadness, loneliness and never being fulfilled.
But as I began to turn my thoughts towards Love (of my Creator, of myself and of my brothers and sisters), towards being of service and towards solving the problems of others, life began to change. And it was THROUGH making the mistakes that I learned that there was another way.
It was the pain (at sometimes BIG pain) that eventually led me down a path of wisdom. And I was a stubborn student. I had to be brought right to the brink to finally change my ways.
I believe it was by Grace that I met people when I did, who handed me the books, or said the words that I needed to hear in that exact moment. It was Grace that kept me alive through my own foolishness as a young man. It was Grace that helped make TDL what it is today. There is NO WAY I could have done all these things by myself.
To me, Grace is the Love of The Uni-verse in action and it is something that ALL of us can receive simply because we are all children of The Uni-verse. Grace is a force that exists, not because we always get it perfect; Grace exists for us in spite of the fact that we don't get it perfect.
I've found that Grace has touched my life in increasing amounts, as I take my eyes off of myself and turn towards focusing on Love. It's almost as if there is a current of wind that is Grace and it is by setting the sail of Love that we can catch it's current.
No matter what you're going through, no matter what has happened in the past, I strongly believe that Grace is available to you if you simply turn from your, thoughts of fear and ego to thoughts of Love. The Uni-verse wants you to be happy. Can you say the same thing about yourself?
I hope that wherever you are, Grace touches your life today and that you can love yourself as much as The Uni-verse loves you.
Love,
Mastin
GUEST
Also, one of my best friends, an amazing yoga teacher and addition specialist 
DAILY
