Graceful is a lingering Christmas with family and friends.

Graceful is having nowhere to go when the weather outside is frightful, and finding the time to watch a wintry mix make artwork on the windows instead.

Graceful is delight on our children’s faces at every turn…laughter and smiles and extra hugs in pajamas all day long.

Food on the table.

A cup of hot tea.

Snuggles with babies when they’re not feeling well.

An extra hour of sleep.

A prayer. Silent, spoken, offered up.

A hot shower.

Warm clothes to wear.

Laundry to wash.

Storytime.

Games and laughter after the kids go to bed.

Daddy home for a long string of days and a “weekend time!” that stretches out generously into the New Year.

Graceful is this time of year, when everything ordinary still happens, but it sets itself down amidst the extraordinary and miraculous that doesn’t always linger as palpably outside of Christmas.

Graceful is right where we are, when we open our eyes to both ordinary and extraordinary, when we open our hands in thanksgiving, and when we offer our hearts to each other. 

Graceful is everywhere we are infusing grace, and anywhere we are receiving it.

Let’s keep finding it together,

molly madonna