Sometimes a book or an unexpected experience comes along that fills me with a sense of grace. These unexpected gifts make my heart sing.

This week brought two contrasting grace notes into my life. It feels like I am receiving operating instructions from the universe.

The First Grace Note

A book that I just finished reading— Cathedral of the Wild: An African Journey Home by Boyd Varty, was so fascinating and inspiring, it filled me with hope and joy. I saw the book on a display at the library and was captivated by the title. I figured anyone who saw the wild as a cathedral might have something to say to me. I’ve often thought and said that the woods are my cathedral.

‘Know your truth, stick to the process, and be free of the outcome,’ are the only operating instructions we will ever need for a right life.” — Boyd Varty, Cathedral of the Wild: An African Journey Home

Later, as I read the book, I experienced many more “aha’s.” I soon realized that the place where the author grew up, Londolozi, was the same nature reserve Martha Beck talked about in her book, Finding Your Way in a Wild World. Since Martha Beck is one of my favorite inspirational writers, I was fascinated to read the story of how Londolozi came to be, and how the family who founded it, was transformed by the nature they called home.

With equal parts adventure story, memoir, inspiration, and operating instructions for life, Boyd Varty’s vivid description of his childhood and the history of Londolozi made it difficult for me to put the book down.

I’ve learned that nothing is worth doing if it cannot be done from a place of deep peace. If we want to restore the planet, we must first restore ourselves. I believe that you find your way to your right life, your mission, the same way you find an animal. First, quiet your heart and be still. Then find the fresh track and be willing to follow it. You don’t need to see the whole picture; you only need to see where to take the next step. Life isn’t about staying on track; it’s about constantly rediscovering the track. — Boyd Varty, Cathedral of the Wild: An African Journey Home

The Second Grace Note

On a street photography outing with 2 other photographers this week, we stopped on an old cobblestone street in the arts district of Northeast Minneapolis. While making photographs of the old and gritty buildings interspersed with unique artistic creations, we noticed a boxing gym in one of the old warehouses.

We went in and asked if they would mind if we made some photographs. The woman who owned and managed the gym, was at first hesitant, but then graciously said, “Yes!” to our request. When I looked up a bit about her on the gym’s website, I found a quote from Boxing Digest Magazine, describing her as “one of the few female players of substantial caliber in today’s boxing world.” The website went on to describe how she first walked into a boxing gym to learn some self-defense and ended up finding her life’s passion.

So in 1996 Bauch, calling on her background as a fitness instructor and small business manager, founded Uppercut Gym. From its humble beginnings in a Lake Street storefront, Uppercut has grown into the Midwest’s largest boxing gym – and the only boxing gym in the United States solely owned and operated by a woman. — Website: uppercutgym.com

What an inspiration! To discover your life’s passion and then to build that into a business is the stuff of dreams. You never know who you will meet or what their story is, but if you stay open you can learn so much.

What surprised me the most about photographing this boxing gym setting with it’s old warehouse grunge, was the astonishing beauty I found in the space. The light, the boxers’ faces, the shadows and shapes, all created wondrous images.

Lying on my back, watching the stars emerge, I was struck by how they’d been there all along, invisibly lining my day even when I couldn’t see them. Sometimes the darkness reveals, its ways more mysterious than light’s. Sometimes the darkness gives a gift of stars by which we can navigate our way home. — Boyd Varty, Cathedral of the Wild: An African Journey Home

Where are the grace notes in your life this week?

May you walk in beauty.