Luck or planning?

This week's postcard shows a bottle on a sandy shore, with a message in it. The quotation is by Jonathan Swift: "Grosse Wendungen werden nicht immer durch starke Hände herbeigeführt, sondern durch ein glückliches Zugreifen im geeigneten Augenblick."

Google translate was a bit iffy about this, but I *think* it means: "Great changes are not always brought about by strong hands; but by/through a happy access at the appropriate moment."

In other words, no matter how carefully we plan something, there is still an element of luck or grace involved in bringing our project to fruition.

In the past few years, I have come to realise that God's grace is everywhere, if we had but eyes to see, and ears to hear. I believe that through sacred living - weaving moment of attention into our everyday lives and recognising the sacred there, we will find it. Sacred living is about living with a new level of awareness. It is about going through our days paying attention to what is happening at each passing moment. It is about noticing the presence of the divine, the numinous, everywhere: in the natural world, in other people, in ourselves, and in things that happen to us. Sacred living is about rediscovering our sense of wonder, and living our lives in response to that. Sacred living is about truly appreciating what we have. About being awake to God's grace at work in the world.

Next week, I will be co-facilitating an engagement group at Summer School. My co-facilitator and I have planned every session down to the last detail, but I am well aware that it will take luck and grace and the holding of sacred space for the usual Summer School magic to happen. I pray that it will do.