WK 4 Blog Entry 2 - Reading - Grace

Grace comes from owning the risks we take in a world by and large immune to our control.

The above quote from Zander's The Art of Possibility really hit home this week as events in my life converge into the most stressful and complex week I have had in a long time. Despite knowing I couldn't do anything more about it I entered the week still tense over the status of my thesis. Added to that we all had our media projects and other myriad assignments and tasks required for this program.

I knew all this; I had signed on for the program. Then I agreed to train new employees in my region - should have realized the training weeks (along with the additional travel and hours) would coincide with the busiest time for school. But taking everything in stride I found that the week has been an eye-opening experience and that I can handle much more than I think - as long as I don't think about it too much.

I found that in these matters my biggest stresser all week was myself. I need to remember rule #6!

Then, there are the other considerations: those things that happen to us that we want to blame on others instead of recognizing as risks we accepted and took on ourselves: risks such as driving cars and owning pets. If you own a car you accept the risk it will break down and cost money. If you own two, you take the risk that both will do the same. If you own pets, you take the risk that they will cause you trouble or get themselves hurt. There is no blame, there is no control - it just is what it is. Accepting that gracefully is part of accepting those risks.

Both cars breaking down at the same time is statistically unusual. It happens. But time and money fixes vehicles or replaces them. Simple. A pet getting hurt isn't unusual. But recovery (hopefully) takes time and patience. I can choose to wail at the world and blame everyone else: the manufacturers of the vehicles; the mechanics who didn't tell me parts were deteriorating; the driver that hit my dog. But that gets me nowhere and only increases my frustration. Instead, I can choose to accept the world as it is with grace and hope everything works out the way I want.