Sunday, June 28, 2009

Day 27


Occurred March 5, 2009

Today's favor was about grace. I received a request asking me to help a friend plan a weekend get-away. On the surface this request may seem sort of out of the usual scope of this project and yet, as seems to be the overall message garnered from this experience, appearances may be deceiving and true meaning is found only upon forgetting to judge the outcome.

For the past four years, my friend worked tirelessly and never once took a break for herself. I asked her why and she responded, "If I stopped, I would never start again." She had left an abusive personal relationship and thought the only way to ensure staying away from her ex- was to keep busy and not allow her mind to wander back to the past. Her work had been her salvation since it allowed her to help others and now it had become her prison. It's funny in this world how such duality seems to always exist: that which is supposed to save us usually ends up hurting us in some unforeseen way. Medicines used to cure one ailment predispose us to another malady, means used to create independence sometimes end up having us feel more trapped than even before. As she recounted her reasons for not stopping and the justifications for not taking a break, I somehow found myself saying, "It sounds like you need to give yourself grace and allow yourself to pause and reflect." She agreed and we began to plan a trip for her to recharge and renew her commitment to her most important relationship: the one with her self. She chose a spa retreat in Arizona and together we booked the lodging, spa treatments, and drafted a letter to send her clients telling of her planned absence. She promised to not post-pone or cancel the trip no matter what arose in her work and or personal life and it was then I said, "that sure sounds like grace to me, congrats!"

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