Things are really scattered. 
The world is bleeding from oceans and rock and ice. 
A man kills a teacher and her children with a butcher’s knife and somehow, we wipe our foreheads at the end of the day and give thanks. 

Markets are crashing around the world and terrorism finds its way onto our streets. Something we, as Americans, are just not used to.
We’re not used to bombs or threats or running from our tables that are still topped with warm food. 

I contemplate on the reality of our friends, brothers and sisters who face this reality of hell on earth every.single.day. 
It makes other things seem…really, really small. Like the guy who honked his horn at me for nearly cutting him off — and I say to myself, “Really, you’re angry?? YOU’RE ANGRY??”
And sure, he has a right to be - only he doesn’t know it was an accident, his anger is evident when he rode on my bumper and so viciously let me know I did something wrong.

I think about this; day in and day out - the things that anger us and the ungrace of others upon our tired and restless souls. [And granted, our anger upon them.]

Blessed humanity, I pray for peace in our conversation and interactions. 
I think about war in the sense of arguing - does either side walk away with a sweet and well-earned victory? 
Does arguing between husband and wife portray what he or she is actually feeling? The longer and louder you scream does not prove your point and there’s nothing useful about this. 

I always walk away - angry at myself for getting so worked up. I know better and should know better next time…but I’m just so damn stubborn and I wonder if it’s human nature to WANT to win. [I didn’t use to think so, but that was just me..] I didn’t think that was ever my goal, but I see it more and more. 
Winning is being right - Winning is burying your partner in their wrongness…

And that feeling you think is winning…is actually a huge loss. A loss of peace and a loss of recognition as equals. 

So here comes this word “Grace” that, depending on the person, may or not be correlated with Jesus. 
Humanity has the capacity for grace, regardless of religion. Whether or not we use it, I believe, is the biggest witness to our capacity for Love and this Love that Jesus spoke about when he walked around this dusty earth so long ago. 

I understand there’s complexity in this - that for you, Jesus may or may not have been a real person, or the Son of God and maybe you understand the philosophy of yourself is good enough. 

But at the end of the day…the trees do bend and they do not break. 
There’s a grace in that wind - giving and taking as the ebb and flow of breathing and that essence of our life-being. 

Grace…is the essence of life-being, giving and taking. 

And those trees will show us more than we’ll ever know.