grace Archives - Writing From The Kitchen

Grace to All – Happy Fall!

October 15, 2019October 15, 2019by Erika K Rothwell8 Comments

Autumn has arrived in my kitchen. Can you see the shadows and the reflections?

The birth phase of care-free Spring and the youthful energy of young-adult Summer have led me to the nostalgic and “time doesn’t stand still”, Autumn.

The death of winter has not yet come. Dreams are alive, just fading into colorful prismatic displays on the trees in the hills, mesmerizing me into a fantastical trance where I once again accomplish nothing, or so I think.

Negativity surrounds me, yet hope lightens my load as I write from the kitchen.

Evening’s sun rays light up my decor. Chosen colors of blue, white, and orange encourage me to share inspiration from a simple photo taken as I attempted to fend off sadness.

Who writes from their kitchen? I do. Somehow, the spirit of life brightens the space where my heart lives. My memoir speaks from the kitchen. The memoir that I have not yet written, and may never write.

There are pieces of me, in segments of 300 words or less, scattered, fragmented, and disjointed in my documents folder. All of which could be completed and shared with the world.

I keep writing, searching for that perfect view. I don’t stop. I keep living and writing more. It doesn’t feel right. So I just keep writing. However, I just may have captured my thoughts, raw and unfiltered, once again. The perfect piece to describe how I feel, today.

Happy Fall and Grace to all!

Love y’all

Erika

©Erika K Rothwell

authenticity, beauty, self-acceptance

Love Your Messy Truth

September 3, 2019September 3, 2019by Erika K RothwellLeave a Comment

Love your messy truth – It’s beautiful! Your truth is not ugly. Believe in the beauty of your truth.

Frame your point of reference in grace and acceptance. And allow yourself to be reborn.

The birth process can be visually messy. Yet we find ourselves in awe of the beauty of new life.

In fact, the birth of anything is a messy process. Our lives are also generally messy, our pasts littered with indiscretions and uninvited challenges. But to accept oneself through it all is courageous and beautiful.

Truth is where the beauty begins. Embrace authenticity. Find truth within yourself and share it with the world. Trust in the process. Do not deny yourself by denying your inward truths.

As the tight bud of a flower unfurls its petals, unguarded and opening to the possibilities, we must expose our deepest selves, providing the seeds of tomorrow.

Denying that we hold these seeds only leads to an unfulfilled life and a timeline of “what ifs?”

Joyfully release these seeds, for holding onto them too tightly will not spread the beauty.

More importantly, only in the acceptance of our deepest truths are we allowed to gaze upon the beauty of others.

Grace, hope, self-acceptance

Embrace Grace

June 19, 2019June 20, 2019by Erika K Rothwell5 Comments

Imagine Grace resides at the mountaintop. Your life consists of climbing through the unknown, toward that high peak, suffering the maladies from unplanned events along an arduous journey, dreaming and reaching for Grace.

Now, instead, imagine Grace alongside you every step of the way. Perhaps, like me, place a flower in your hair as a tangible reminder of her presence. You climb without any equipment or even the necessary strength as the vertical path opens up ahead of you potentially fraught with unexpected hardship and loss. All the while, your companion, Grace, supports you. You survive the best you know how, while she reminds you she is always there for you no matter what choices you make.

Grace in a yellow mountain flower — Photo by Erika K Rothwell – Mountain Flower

Grace exists, but first you must acknowledge her existence. You must call her into your life, as if she were your greatest advocate and most empathetic friend. She is your hope and a companion in your life all the way through to the end.

Grace gently caresses your dreams, your feelings, your being. Without her, you suffer from judgment, insecurity and fear. With her you are accepted, understood, and open to be loved.

Once opened, you are filled with her and you become a conduit to spread her powerful and healing ways.

Join her. Accept her into your life. The support you find will infuse energy into your journey to the mountaintop. When you reach the top, thank her for her loyal patronage. Praise her source.

Bring her back down the mountain, inside of your heart, and share her exponentially as you strive to spread love and kindness, non-judgmental support, encouraging others to embrace her like you once did.

With Grace,

Erika K Rothwell

Grace, hope

My Hope on Sunday

March 17, 2019April 9, 2019by Erika K RothwellLeave a Comment

I dream of a world where judgment is replaced with understanding and compassion. A world where opinions are stated with warmth and withheld when generated from self-promoting agendas.

Each individual contribution in this world is available from the life-giving spirit given equally to all of us. The belief systems that grow within each unique heart is as personal as its owner’s reflection in the mirror. One individual does not have the answer for another. Grace has the only answer we all need.

When one voice emphatically reprimands another with the weapon of self-righteousness, a pretension of a special relationship with the all-knowing and a misguided belief that truth is shared only with them, they partake in a foolish fantasy.

My fellow writers, this week, I read your commenters’ distasteful judgment with sadness. Fending off wolves of merciless evangelism is no feat for the sensitive of nature. And although I wish them grace as well, I swallow my own righteous indignation at their misplaced words.

Keep writing!

encouragement, hope, perseverence

Persevere in Hope – Day 18

January 21, 2019January 21, 2019by Erika K RothwellLeave a Comment

It’s 6:23 in the evening. The clock tells me it’s late to be writing. Yet my commitment to the keyboard still stands.

The thoughts and feelings continue to swirl, and focusing becomes a challenge. For as hope remains my focus, the struggle brings tears. Tears that speak volumes with past hurts and indiscretions, tears that feel helpless against today’s imperfection, and mostly tears that drown out hope for tomorrow’s goodness.

My optimism is buried. My hopeful words nonexistent. What holds me captive is a comfortable hopelessness, a place I have become accustomed to from past hurt.

Shockingly in opposition to my purpose, I share what I most want to escape.

Yet, I still believe “in a future and a hope”. Where I fail is being patient in tribulation.

Patience…the opposite of instant gratification. In this world of instantaneous responses, patience has become a forgotten virtue.

Our expectations become skewed the more quickly we see results. And the expectation of instant results skews our sense of accomplishment.

What we so often forget is the age-old wisdom in a quote like, “good things come to those who wait.” Is that even ever said anymore in this world of instantaneousness? Where is the lesson in the struggle?

Technology would have us believe that every incredible view is just a high-speed gondola ride to the top of the mountain or a virtual reality representation of a highly-coveted exotic location. When in reality the most magnificent experiences are often revealed to the few who are willing to risk a great struggle and strengthen their resolve to persevere.

Hope doesn’t always present itself as an instant rope of salvation when we find ourselves in a hole. Rather it may teach us that learning to thrive within our circumstances while believing that our saving grace will eventually arrive brings us what we most need to learn, patience.

And so what I’ve learned today is we cannot escape the trials we face instantly, but we can learn to persevere with hope in the midst of it.

-Erika K Rothwell