Graced Notes
At a time in my life when I seemed to be encountering numerous unexpected events, I found myself collecting them in my journal. I decided to give them a name. Graced notes seemed appropriate as I was thinking in musical terms of a ‘grace note’ the small embellishment that follows a musical note in a score. It is so brief that a different type of notation is required to call attention to it. Like the musical ornamentation, graced notes add texture and color to your day without altering the general flow of life.
Graced notes are those spontaneous moments in life that thrill and surprise you. They are those unexpected divine elements that drop into your life for no apparent reason and from nowhere in particular. Some people might call them miracles but that seems too lofty a term for what I’ve been exploring with graced notes which often delight your soul and enliven your spirit. And I believe graced notes are more common than we think if we pay attention.
Graced notes are unique experiences, blessed gems that float around in your memory long after their occurrences. You could consider them a kiss from God or a gift from the universe. No matter what circumstances or how graced notes appear to you—they arrive at just the right time when you need them even though you may not be on a quest for something special, and in some cases, the interaction comes from strangers you probably would not have met any other way.
There are a couple of things required for these encounters to affect you: awareness and gratitude. Awareness is the state of being open to what is going on all around you. This includes the people you meet, the situations you experience, the sounds in nature, and the pure joy that life offers you. There is no room for judgment or evaluation as these gentle flourishes, like a breeze on a hot day generate an unusual essence of life—a giving and receiving. Afterwards, you feel different—nurtured and cared for in a special way.
Gratitude is the follow-up to graced notes. You can’t help it — but sometimes you might forget caught up in the euphoria of the encounter. The gratitude is so deep that mere words like ‘thank you’ don’t seem like enough, but they are all you really have at the time. The more you feel that gratitude from your heart, that part of your consciousness that speaks with a level of authenticity that overrides your thought process, the more the wave of the circumstances stirs within you.
Now, normally you would not go around telling people that you received a graced note; they might think you a bit odd, but I want to share with you a couple of my experiences so that you can recognize that you have them in your own life.
One evening driving home after an afternoon of teaching I got a flat tire on a major thoroughfare. While I was waiting for AAA to arrive a county sheriff stopped to see what was going on. I told him I had a flat tire and was waiting for road assistance. As it was getting dark he asked how long my wait might be and offered to wait until they arrived. A graced note!
On another occasion, I was visiting a friend in a residential neighborhood. It was one of those unpredictable days with the weather. I was parked on a slight incline of melting ice. During my visit, the temperatures dropped, and as I attempted to depart the wheels of my car just kept spinning on what was now a sheet of ice. Without an pickaxe or ice melt, I was stuck until a UPS truck driver delivering packages appeared with a hand shovel and some neighbors came out to give an extra shove and I was on my way. A graced note!
You don’t have to look for these moments. They simply appear and somehow result in the necessary coming together of persons, things, and immeasurable kindnesses culminating in the best human encounters anyone could ever imagine in what would have been an ordinary day. And the only response is gratitude. No grand gestures, bowing, or kissing the ground (that’s for later) just two words are needed, the prayer of ‘thank you.’
It’s those present moment experiences that delight and frighten us. The sacramental beauty, stunned as we are from the opportunities that are reminders that we live in a holy cosmos with humane people. I bet you have received some graced notes, too or been a carrier if you’ve been aware and open to your inner light.
Maybe, this is what Phillip Britts had in mind when he wrote “The Fainter Note”:
Sonnet I
How often do we miss the fainter note
Or fail to see the more exquisite hue,
Blind to the tiny streamlet at our feet,
Eyes fixed upon some other, further view.
What chimes of harmonies escape our ears,
How many rainbows must elude our sight,
We see a field but do not see the grass,
Each blade a miracle of shade and light.
How then to keep the greater end in eye
And watch the sunlight on the distant peak,
And yet not tread on any leaf of love,
Nor miss a word the eager children speak?
Ah, what demand upon the narrow heart,
To seek the whole, yet not ignore the part.
Ah, yes indeed. May you express gratitude for your graced notes today.