Guest Blog Post by Mel Toth -- Grounding/Grace

Mel was part of the Soul Journaling class with Catharine Clarke I wrote about in today’s earlier blog post. Here’s Mel’s response to the work we did:

It is a good thing to be at the bottom of the well.

The well is deep, dark, and damp.

There is a strange safety in discomfort.

When I am here, I cannot sink further.

Is that true?

Can I absolutely know that is true?

No, I cannot. 

But when I am here, I am on solid ground

because every bottom is a grounding.

A re-grounding.

Finding ground again 

after a long fall from grace.

Is that true?

Or is the grace in the fall?

Or is the fall grace?

When you’re at the bottom there’s nowhere to go but up.

First the heat, 

then the rising.

Rising looks like grace.

But maybe it’s just a chemical reaction, like the yeast that makes the dough rise.

A simple equation: 

yeast + water + flour = rising.

Three simple ingredients to create transformation.

What are the ingredients I need now?

If I heed Eliot’s words, this is not the time

for hope

or for love

or for thought.

But maybe it is the time

for trust

and for faith

and for surrender.

Maybe the equation has always been:

trust + faith + surrender = allowing.