Gathering Graces 1/30/2018

*On our way to KHS to walk this morning, Nikki and I saw the moon looking big and beautiful in the western sky.  This is a rehearsal for the special blood, blue and super moon tomorrow morning.

*Some representatives from North Idaho College were at KHS this morning working with seniors who plan to attend there, getting their applications finalized, starting them on their NIC Foundation Scholarship, and answering questions about financial aid.  We got a lot accomplished, and I am so thankful for the help NIC is bringing to our seniors this year.

*The creativity of the students in the afterschool PASS program at Pinehurst Elementary continue to amaze me.  Today, the students transformed into their “superhero” character, and they acted like they were at a superhero party to discuss how they could solve the problem of buildings being vandalized in Pinehurst.  They had wonderful ideas and used each others “super powers” to work together to keep this problem from happening.

*I made some modifications, and ended up knitting a couple of very nice coasters that actually turned out!!  I am finally starting to get the hang of this, and not making as many mistakes!!

*Bill had mentioned some podcasts he had listened to so I decided while I was knitting I would listen to Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast.  I listened to podcasts about how doing the right thing once gives you a pass on continuing to do the right thing, a study done during the Vietnam War, a story about using the underhand free throw shot in basketball, and a three-part Revisionist History miniseries taking a critical look at the idea of capitalization—the measure of how well America is making use of its human potential. These three episodes talked about how hard it is to find the talented students in low income families and get them to college, how colleges with better food tend to not provide as much financial aid to low income students, and why wealthy people donate to already wealthy colleges and universities that don’t really need the funds.  As someone who works preparing students for their college experience, and found these three podcasts very fascinating.

*The podcast episode I started listening to was one Bill and I had a conversation about last Saturday on our trip to Moscow.  It is called Generous Orthodoxy.  “Generous Orthodoxy” is the story of Chester Wenger, a 98-year-old Mennonite minister who chose to confront his own church over a question of deepest principle. It asks: What do you do when the institution that has defined your life comes between you and your family? Wenger offers all of us a master class in the art of dissent. This podcasts tells Wenger’s story of how he responded when he found out his son was gay, and was going to get married.  Wenger’s response brought tears to my eyes.  You can find all these podcasts here.  Tomorrow I plan to finish season one, and listen to subjects about “How does genius emerge?”, “What happens when hysteria overtakes common sense”, and “The Satire Paradox”, asking whether laughter and social protest are friend or foe.

*Zoe has also listened and talked to us about some of these particular podcasts.  In fact, I think the one about basketball free throws she played in the car once.  I have enjoyed listening to many of Gladwell’s audio books over the years, and love the way he thinks and approaches different subjects. Because his sharing makes me think about things in a different way.  I will continue listening to more of his material.

*At KHS today, staff and students were asked to wear purple in memory of Sarah McFeeley, a KHS student who passed away last year.  I will always remember Sarah, and what an impact she made on our school.  Here is one of my favorite photos of Paul, Sarah and I.

Gathering Graces 1/29/2018

*Today was the beginning of the second semester at KHS.  I look forward to continuing guiding our seniors toward their future path.

*I said goodbye to Friends this evening.  My binge watching of the television show has come to an end, and now I am free to pursue other interests in the evenings, and I have a lot of things to accomplish on my checklist.  I gave myself until the end of January to finish, and I am done two days ahead of time!! It was a really funny show.

*I found a pattern for coasters, and attempted knitting one, but it didn’t turn out quite right.  I think the pattern may have been a bit off.  But I know enough now that I can adjust the directions and I think I can make it look better.  We’ll see.  Coasters....take two!!

*It felt really good to get up and walk this morning.  Nikki was recovering from the flu so we have been on a break, but we were up and at em this morning.  If the weather stays this mild through February, we may be walking outside in no time. 

*The hymn Be Thou My Vision was one of the prelude songs played at the funeral I attended on Saturday.  This is one of my favorite hymns.  I turned to Cosette, and told her I wanted this song sung at my funeral.  (I don’t think that freaked her out too much to hear me say that.)  Here are the words to this beautiful hymn.

Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art

High King of Heaven, my victory won
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heav’n’s Sun
Heart of my own heart, whate’er befall
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all

Gathering Graces 1/28/2018

*I enjoyed a wonderful church service this morning.  I love helping lead the worship for our congregation, and I love the people who I share the platform with as we lead our congregation in worship.  What a blessing to be a part of such a wonderful worship team.  Thank you Chris Schonewald Meyer, Amy Holland-Arnhold, Simon Miller, Tim Arnhold, Paul Roberts and Joann Montieth.  I love singing praises to God with each of you.

*When I returned home, it was time to clean out the refrigerator. Sometimes it can be scary to uncover what moldy, slimy or smelly things one may reveal in the depths of the refrigerator.  I found a few things that were a little moldy, but nothing too bad.  But it felt good to get things cleaned out and thrown away, and items organized a bit better in the shelves of the refrigerator door.  Mission accomplished!!

*I completed knitting another dishcloth, but I “messed up” again, and changed stitches at some point when I shouldn’t.  It should have been a straight stockinette stitch all the way through, but didn’t turn out that way.  Despite the flaw in knitting when I should have purled, I did learn how to do a seed stitch to help create a border on the dish cloth so it would not curl up as much.  So I am making progress!!

*For the next year my sister and I will be writing a poem each week.  If you would like to read them, my first poem Grief Knitting is here, and Christy’s poem Not For A Year is here.  I haven’t written a lot of poetry in my lifetime, so it will be fun to explore this type of writing and see what come out.

52 Cups of Poems: Cup One: Grief Knitting

Earlier this month my sister Christy shared a book with me titled 52 Cups of Coffee by Megan Gebhart.  In this book, Gebhart decided to have coffee with someone new each week, and write about their encounter.  Christy thought it would be fun to come up with an idea the two of us could do together each week as well.  I suggested we write a poem each week. Christy posted her first poem here.  It is not surprising that the subject of both of our poems is about Mom's death.

My first poem is a combination of starting to knit again and what goes through your head as you are working the yarn and needles. Knitting can actually be a wonderful way to let thoughts swirl around in your head and a way to think about things one is dealing with, even if you don't even know some of the subjects that may be thought of while knitting.

Here is my first poem.

Grief Knitting

Cast on, cast on, cast on, cast on.
Mom is gone, Mom is gone, Mom is gone, Mom is gone.
Knit one, purl two, knit one, purl two,
I miss you, I miss you, I miss you, I miss you.

Needle up, wrap around, needle up, wrap around.
You're in the ground, you're in the ground, you're in the ground, you're in the ground.
Needle down, around we go, needle down, around we go,
I'm feeling low, I'm feeling low, I'm feeling low, I'm feeling low.

A new color to tie, A new color to tie,
Sometimes I cry, Sometimes I cry.
The blue color I tie, The blue color I tie,
Why did you die?  Why did you die?

Gathering Graces 1/27/2018

*Around 8 a.m., Bill picked me up at the house, and we drove to Moscow to attend the funeral of Amy Bird.  The Bird family were family friends when they lived in Kellogg, and we have kept close to their son Kenton Bird, who is the same age as Bill.  Cosette’s first work study job at the University of Idaho was working in Kenton’s office, and so she knows him pretty well, too, so she also attended the funeral service with us.  Christy had planned to attend, but was unable to come at the last minute.  But she did spend some time writing a beautiful passage on her blog today about grief and losing loved one called The Shed Notebook: Saying Goodbye Over and Over.  You can read it here.

*I love Episcopalian funeral services.  I love the words, the way they are set up, and how they honor the person and the Christian faith.  (I often joke that I think in a previous life, I bet I was Episcopalian.  I always feel at home whenever I attend a service in an Episcopalian church).  The music was beautiful, the words were beautiful, the homily was beautiful.  It was also special to go to the altar for communion and break bread next to our former neighbor Marcia Morgan Jacobs.  Marcia and her husband Doug Jacobs are members of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Moscow. 

*I remember visiting Amy Bird with Mom occasionally when the lived in a house on the road from Kellogg to Smelterville by the Bunker Hill Smelter.  I am not sure why we would stop and visit, but I remember their house, and remember stopping to visit.  One thing that stood out to me as stories were shared about Amy was the fact that she broke a barrier by becoming the first woman on the Kellogg School District school board. 

*Another story from the service I loved was why the particular passage from Ruth was used as the Old Testament reading.  Her husband Bob used these verses because Amy had grown up in a small community church in Washington.  The first time she attended a Midnight Mass Christmas Eve service at the Episcopal Church, she told Bob she new this is where she belonged, and she felt like home.  As it says in Ruth 1:1-17, “Thy people shall be my people”. 

*During the reception I visited with Mary Kay McFadden.  Mary Kay was in the Tri Delt sorority when Christy lived there, and when I lived there, she was one of our alumni advisors.  We had a wonderful talk and she came up with some connections of people Cosette to call about possibly looking into a job after she graduates in May.  It was a really fun conversation.  I also spoke briefly with Marcia and Doug, and Kenton’s wife Gerri Sayler.

*After the reception Bill, Cosette and I met Molly and Travis at Bucers in downtown Moscow.  This is one of my favorite places, because they serve a certain coffee drink called a Cordadito that I LOVE!!  I was surprised by a wonderful wooden wall hanging Travis made for Paul and I for our home that he has been working on for the past month.  I love it, and love he crafted it with his own hands.  We also gave Travis his birthday present a couple weeks early.

*Bill and I were on the road by 2 p.m., and I enjoyed our conversation about a variety of topics.  We made it home safe and sound, and I spent most of my evening knitting and watching Friends.

Gathering Graces 1/26/2018

*It was a wonderful day from morning to evening.  I started off my morning meeting my friend Carolyn for breakfast at Sam’s.  Carolyn and I used to try and meet monthly to visit and catch up, but life got in the way, and then her husband had some health complications and she did not feel comfortable leaving his side.  But today he was doing good enough that she felt confident she could leave him for a couple of hours to come have breakfast with me.  I am so glad it worked out.  We had such a great visit, and I look forward to many more in the near future.  It was good.

*When I returned home, I did the final activity in my online class and shared about it in the group.  It was an exercise about relaxing and being still and identifying feelings and emotions that come up in the stillness, and how you deal with those feelings.  It was good.

*I turned on some classical music, grabbed my knitting needles, and knitted and let my mind wander and think about a variety of topics.  Then I would stop, do a little online research, then back to knitting.  Then I would continue to think, brainstorm, write things in a notebook, then research more if needed.  It was good.

*For Christmas I gave Paul “The Twelve Dates of Christmas”.  Our first date night was tonight, and we drove to downtown Spokane and stopped in Starbucks and had coffee, then went down the road a few doors and had dinner at a fondue restaurant called The Melting Pot.  Paul had received a gift card from this place a few years ago from his secret pal at work, and finally made plans to use it. It was good.

*Eating at The Melting Pot is not just a meal, but a dining experience.  You are served four courses, including a cheese fondue, a salad, an entree and a dessert fondue.  We started our with the Wisconsin Cheese Trio fondue, accompanied by bread, apples and raw vegetables to dip in the fondue. It was good.

Wisconsin Trio Cheese Fondue

Next up was salad.  Paul enjoyed a Spinach and Bleu Cheese salad, and I had the house salad with sweet and tangy dressing.  It was good.

Spinach Bleu Cheese Salad

The House Salad with Sweet and Tangy Dressing

We each chose our own entree.  Paul chose Surf and Turf, with Filet Minon and Lobster Tail and Wild Mushroom Sacchetti.  I chose the Fondue Delight, with Filet Minon, Lobster Tail, Chicken, Shrimp and Wild Mushroom Sacchetti.  This was all cooked in a fondue pot full of seasoned vegetable broth.  Then there were six different dipping sauces to dip your meat into.  My favorite was the Yellow Curry Sauce. It was good.

Our entrees....Surf and Turf and Fondue Delight

For our dessert, we chose the Dark and Dulce chocolate fondue, a combination of dark chocolate, dulce de leche and sea salt.  To accompany each course, we each ordered a flight of wine, so each court we were served a small 3 oz. pour of four different wines.  It was quite delicious and a fun experience.   It was good.

Dark and Dulce Chocolate Fondue

*Another part of the experience I enjoyed about last night was being in a city.  I enjoyed sitting in the Starbucks on Main Street talking with Paul, and watching the people sitting or coming in and out of the coffee shop.  I loved that we all looked different.  Everyone didn’t look like me.  It liked it when the young college-aged man next to us seemed to trust us enough to ask us to watch his laptop while he went and used the restroom.  I loved seeing and listening to the busker play guitar on the street as we walked by.  I even enjoyed being approached by a gentleman who asked us if we had fifty cents.  It was different from my hometown.  It had a different vibe that made me want to come back to Spokane on a more regular basis to experience more of that city feeling.  It was good.

Gathering Graces 1/25/2018

*I have had the chance to talk to a few of the senior girls about their decision to go through Rush at the University of Idaho, and join a Sorority.  I have enjoyed sharing with them how much I enjoyed telling them how much I enjoyed living in a sorority when I was in college, and how many Tri-Delta sister I still stay in touch with, and remain friends with either through personal contact or through Facebook.  Over the past few years I have been pleasantly surprised to run into them on my visits to the U of I.  This spring I will be traveling to Sun Valley for a conference, and a few of my pledge sister live in the Sun Valley area, and we plan to get together for dinner.  These sorority conversations have evokes a lot of wonderful memories.

*Paul stopped and got a cheese pizza from Yokes for dinner, and got a whole bunch of other items to add to it.  We had a very flavorful, yet rather odd combination of ingredients on our pizza, including mushrooms, green peppers, artichoke hearts, pickled garlic, smoked oysters, and grape tomatoes.  It was very tasty.  He added bleu cheese to his, and I added Parmesan cheese to my slices.

*Thinking about changes in the future and in our life can be exciting, but it can also be very scary.  My emotions about it go from one extreme to the other.  But Paul and I continue to talk about what our future may look like, what our options might be, and, as long as we keep the conversation going it is going to be all right.

Gathering Graces 1/24/2018

*I really enjoy coffee, and my morning coffee of choice has been black, no cream, no milk, no sweetener of any kind.  But this fall I noticed the coffee was causing a small amount of heartburn in the morning.  So I have made a change.  I now add warmed, frothed milk to my coffee each morning, and it makes a world of difference.  I can still enjoy my coffee, but without the side effect of heart burn.  I am enjoying the change.  Sometimes it is just those little things in life that make a big difference.

*I am happy to report that Paul’s mom Patricia made it safely through her surgery today, and is expected to return home today.  It was so cute watching his dad Burton posting updates on Facebook about her throughout the day.  I especially enjoyed the one with the pink hearts in the background.  I love the fact that my father-in-law is on Facebook, and is quite savvy about the way he uses this particular form of social media.  Continue to keep Pat in your prayers as she recovers at home under the loving care of her family.

*I noticed my first sign up spring as I came in my front door today.  Some flower stems were shooting up through the ground. I believe they are crocuses.  Usually my front flower bed, because it is up against the front of the house, tends to be a bit warmer, and things happen earlier there than in other parts of the yard. 

The first sign of spring...crocuses bursting forth from the ground by our front door.

Gathering Graces 1/23/2018

*Last week the students I work with in the after school program created masks.  Today they put on their masks and shared with me the character they were when they put on their mask.  Some of these characters included a magical blue and orange fox, a human unicorn, a butterfly superhero, a marionette from a video game, a Mockingjay, and a Japanese female professional wrestler.  I love listening to the students talk about these characters, and marvel at their creativity and imagination.

*Today I met one on one with many of the seniors to see if they were on track with their plans for college.  It was exciting to visit with them, and to see how much they are on top of things, especially since this is only January!!

*I completed one dishcloth as I practice knitting and purling, and have started another with a little different pattern.  I am enjoying getting back into the rhythm of knitting, and seeing the results of my attempts.  Yes, there are some imperfections, but that is the way to learn.

*Paul and I have been having discussions about our future, and what it is going to look like, as my current job comes to an end in June, and I explore possibilities of what comes next.  We keep throwing out ideas, and discussing them, and it is fun imagining the possibilities in this next phase of our life, which could look a lot different than the current phase.  It is an exciting time.

Gathering Graces 1/22/2018

*As I started looking at Facebook this morning, words of love and comfort started being shared with one of my Facebook friends on her page regarding her husband.  It seemed pretty clear that something had happened to her husband.  I messaged my sister-in-law and found out this young mother of two beautiful young boys lost her 40 year old husband to an unexpected heart attack on Sunday.  I have know this woman most of her life, and I had her in Sunday School when we went to church in Meridian, and have watched her marry this wonderful man and be the mother to these beautiful boys.  As the tears began to flow, my prayer is that her family is surrounded by love, comfort and peace.

*Work was good, and I enjoyed some of the interactions I had with students.  It is all so very exciting to be a part of helping students prepare for their futures.

*We started a new session in the after school drama program.  The next two weeks we are focusing on being different characters.  The kids were great today, becoming anything I asked them to be.  They had me laughing most of the time.

*If you want to cook your steaks in a way that makes them tender and delicious, try this recipe here for Pan Seared Ribeye Steak with Bleu Cheese Butter.  I actually used New York steaks tonight,  I think this is the third time I have prepared steaks this way.  As I was looking at my blog post from last year’s birthday dinner for Mom, this is what I prepared.  You take the steaks and fry them on high heat in a cast iron skillet (for me, it was my cast iron dutch oven), for a couple minutes on each side in butter and olive oil.  Sprinkle the steaks with rosemary, then put the steak into the oven for about 5 minutes.  When they are done, take out and drizzle the rosemary butter on the steaks.  Put them on the plate, and top with the special bleu cheese garlic butter you made earlier, and let the steaks sit on the plate for about five minutes before eating.  Then enjoy.  This is the way steaks are meant to be enjoyed!

*My friend April is doing an online course this week about finding your Voice.  I spent some time this evening journaling and sharing with the other people taking this course.  I look forward this week to the daily assignments, and what I find out through this process.

Gathering Graces 1/21/2018

*The day began at church with Paul leading worship, followed by Simon Miller sharing the message this morning.  What a wonderful message he shared, based on Colossians 3:9-17, that share the Apostle Paul’s thoughts on dealing with people you don’t agree with in life.  He says,  clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Instead of reacting immediately to what people say to you or you see on social media, take time to think, meditate and ponder about how you will respond, or, if you even need to at all.  And then have your response be clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Simon shared about how everyone around us has pain in their lives, and we need to learn to respond to others in love.  Oh, I could go on and on, but I loved his sharing this morning, and he really gave me a lot to think about.

*I did give my office a bit of attention this afternoon.  I went through piles of things on my desk, and threw away a lot of things, or got items in piles to be filed.  I boxed up some items that need to be returned to the theater.  At one point Paul came in to ask if he could help in any way.  I started having him take things out of the office and put away in various other parts of the house.  After a couple of hours, I was ready to return back to my knitting.

*The knitting of the dishcloth project continues.  Knit a row...purl a row...knit a row....purl a row. 

*Family dinner was at Christy and Everett’s house tonight.  They recently finished the remodeling of the shed in their backyard, and it now has electricity so there is light and heat.  Christy prepared a delicious beef stew.  She got the recipe from one of Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa cookbooks she owns.  She also prepared a wedge salad, and made a batch of Mom’s Roquefort salad dressing (which actually has bleu cheese in it) and we enjoyed that every much.  Homemade Italian Peasant Loaf and homemade mincemeat pie and ice cream were also on tonight’s menu.  The shed was a nice, cozy place to enjoy our meal together.  It will be nice to continue enjoying the shed throughout the different seasons.

Gathering Graces 1/20/2018

*Tonight we had a wonderful time at dinner with our friends Stephanie and Andy Broaddus.  We had decided to meet up at Radio Brewing uptown, because Andy had not had the pleasure of eating there yet.  As we walked in, I saw Bill and Debbie up at the bar and went and greeted them.  Then Paul, Andy Stephanie and I had a wonderful meal and a good conversation.  These friends live in Oklahoma, but try to come to Kellogg every so often to stay in their condo and do some skiing, or biking, and enjoy their former town.  They are one of those couples that it doesn’t matter that we haven’t seen each other for a while.  When we sat down, it was as if time hadn’t passed between us, and we just enjoyed time with one another.  It was a really wonderful evening.

*I could not get motivated to get anything done in my office today.  There are things that need organized and gone through and thrown away, and filed and put away.  I went in at one point and got a few things done, but I just wasn’t feeling it today.  I guess it will be there waiting for me tomorrow.

*My knitting project, however, did get some attention.  I am knitting a little dishcloth to help me learn the stockinette stitch.  It is coming along pretty good, except at one point, I got the stitch opposite of what it was suppose to be, and knitted when I was suppose to purl, or visa versa, so the pattern changed.  Which is no big deal.  On a dishcloth, I will make it work.  This is why I am taking time to practice, so when I start working on a project that I really want to look good, I will have taken the time to work some of these things out, and get used to what things feel like and look like as I knit.

*Zoe called today, and we got her a new cell phone ordered.  Her current phone was ready for an upgrade, so she followed in her Aunt Christy and my footsteps and went with the Google Pixel.  I got it ordered online, and, when it was ready, she went and picked it up at a Verizon store in Meridian.  She was excited that it only took a few hours to get it all done.

*Paul purchased a new leash for Archie so he can take Archie for a run and have his hands free when he walks or runs.  Archie gives him quite the workout!!

Gathering Graces 1/19/2018

*Today Mom would have turned 87 years old.  But she was not here with us to celebrate.  But she was here in spirit as Bill, Christy and I spent the afternoon together celebrating Mom.  When people would ask me how it was throughout the Christmas holidays without Mom being there, I would often answer that there were some hard moments, but, overall, it wasn’t too bad because I was surrounded by my loving family members who helped the time be one of healing instead of constant.  Last week when I realized Mom’s birthday was coming up, and that it could be a hard day for all of us, I asked my siblings if they would like to have an sibling out together and go to lunch to celebrate Mom’s birthday and raise a toast in her honor.  They both agreed.  And it was a wonderful day being with my siblings, sharing stories about Mom, and being with two wonderful people who I love, and who I know love me as well.  We went to Coeur d’Alene and had lunch at The Daft Badger, an establishment owned by a friend of Bills.  Then we went to Calypso Coffee to finish our afternoon with cups of coffee and more conversation.  It was the perfect way to spend the day.

*Last week I had taken the chicken bones from the chicken I had prepared for Christy’s birthday dinner and made a chicken broth in the Crockpot that took about a week.  The broth had been sitting in the refrigerator this week, and it was time to make some chicken noodle soup.  I went to Yokes and bought some chicken breasts to cook so I could add chunks of chicken to the soup.  As I added cut up carrots, celery and onions to the broth to cook and simmer, I made some noodle dough, rolled it out, cut it up, and dropped the noodles into the soup.  I made these noodles a month or two ago, and I love how easy it is to make noodles for soup.  The soup was absolutely delicious.  Homemade broth and homemade noodles add a depth and texture to the soup that really make eating it something special.  

*I started writing Gathering Graces on January 16, 2017.  My first entry reflected on how I came up with the name, and reflected on what happened in my life on 1/15/2017.  I had no idea what a journey this daily writing would take me when I started it a year ago.  Writing my daily Gathering Graces help me look at the little things in life that make it wonderful.  It helped me work through caring for an ailing mother.  It helped me deal with grief once that ailing mother passed away.  It helped chronicle my trip to Italy.  It helped me realize that what I share, especially about caring for Mom, really helped others who are going through, or anticipate going through something similar.  But I also draw strength from the conversations, comments and messages people send me regarding what I write each day.  And, for me, it has kept me consistently writing on a daily basis.  As I look what I originally wrote as my purpose for writing my daily Gathering Graces, I believe I have fulfilled what I set out to do...

That is what I am going to attempt to do from now on to keep a track for me personally the wonderful things that happen in my life on a daily basis, and to make these things a part of my family and friends near and far who may want a glimpse into my daily life, as I similarly get a glimpse into my brother's daily life.

As I looked at the word "Grace" it fits so well with what I want to share.
As a Christian, God granted me grace by redeeming my life from sin.
We can say "Grace" before a meal to give thanks.
We say someone has grace if they have seemingly effortless beauty or charm of movement, form or proportion.

Grace is also synonymous with mercy, kindness, and goodwill.

In Greek mythology, a Charis, or Grace is one of three or more minor goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, and fertility, together known as the Charites or Graces.  The usual list, from youngest to oldest is Aglaea (Splendor), Euphrosyne (Mirth) and Thalia (Good Cheer).  In Roman mythology, they were known as the Gratiae, the "Graces".