What Does Being Graceful Mean?

I am on a mission to live my remaining days with grace. To be that gracious, kind, loving person that people will remember long after I am gone.

                                                 So, what exactly is being graceful?

Gracefulness comes from deep within you. You must feel comfortable with yourself and feel secure with what you do, say and be. We weren't born graceful.  It takes some lots of work. I have always wished to be like Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly but in reality I thought of myself as a bull in a china shop, often doing the wrong things, saying what I shouldn't, when I shouldn't and just not having that polish I so aspired in others.

       A person that is graceful is kind, gentle, giving, charitable.

Living graceful is a choice. I have decided that my days as a 'bull in a china shop' are over. We often let our silverware get tarnished and we let ourselves get tarnished, as well. It's time to drag out the silver polish and put a shine on ourselves so that people will sit up and take notice. I will probably still be Willie Latane Barton, but I am going to try very hard to polish myself until I sparkle.

So, I have some work to do. I always did hate the job of polishing my silver. But, this should be fun and fulfilling.

Let's start at the beginning.... 

                   Select what is important to you,
                                                how  you want to live
                                                                      and look and be.

What's important to me?

To have a sweetness, a gentleness, a calm demeanor. 

My Mother was one of the sweetest women I have ever known. I always have said, 'I didn't take after my Mother' because I viewed myself as that bumbling, unsophisticated creature. Mom wasn't sophisticated but you saw the gentle spirit she possessed. I never ever heard her say a bad word against anyone. How many of us can say the same about ourselves. Certainly, not me.

But, it's not too late to change. It is never too late for anything you feel that is important to you. And, so I will work on being sweet and gentle. Not to be presumption and artificial but to find a serenity to even the toughest situations, people and times. Remember Pollyanna? Now, that girl had the right attitude!

It's important to me to always be learning. 

I did not finish high school. But, I have been in a constant state of education all my life. I've read, and traveled and experienced. And, every night you will find me in front of the tv watching Alex Trebek and trying to answer the questions on Jeopardy. Just because I am 81 now does not mean that my learning will stop. I will be learning something new the moment I leave this earth. (Just wish I could blog about that.... but.... oh well, you will have to find that out for yourselves.)

It's important to me to fill my soul with peace, to have a sense of calmness. 

To enjoy the simplest things of every day. Our lives are too filled with clutter to see and enjoy what's around us. To continue to seek my deeper sense of spirituality, a closer connection to God and the peace He offers.

There is so much more that is important to me. I would love to hear what you consider the most important aspects of your life at present and what you would like to take center stage. Tell me your wishes, your desires. Spoken aloud they could take on a deeper meaning and become reality.