Mastering Grace: Lessons from Our Ancestors

Mastering Grace

To come with grace, to grow with grace

To smile with grace, to cry with grace

To sit with grace, to wait with grace

To walk with grace, to run with grace

To speak with grace, to sing with grace

To play with grace, to work with grace

To consume with grace, to dispose with grace

To luxuriate with grace, to suffer with grace

To fight with grace, to unite with grace

To give with grace, to receive with grace

To love with grace, to forgive with grace

To laugh with grace, to grieve with grace

To win with grace, to lose with grace

To fall with grace, to rebound with grace

To pray with grace, to surrender with grace

To live with grace, to leave with grace...

For the art of living is nothing but to embrace

Both life's beauty and its inherent unfairness

And to allow ourselves to coalesce

With the boundless Nothingness.

Note: The art of living is to master the art of dying... gracefully. For those familiar with the Hindu tradition will know that we are currently observing Pitrupaksh, the fortnight during which we pay homage to our ancestors. The above poem is my ode to the departed ancestors.