It’s spring in West Cork and an old man’s fancy returns to cycling and other first loves. Daffodils bloom in door yards and early Daisies grace the lanes. Wildflowers of every color reappear in the forest paths at Castle Freke and will soon find themselves among the tendrils of young girls’ hair.
Have you ever thought about the Christian notion of “grace” ? What did our old ones mean when they said things like “There but for the grace of God go I”? I’ve struggled with this from time to time and come up with “undeserved love.” Maybe “grace” is a loving act done without quid pro quo, price tag, or expectation of return; some stranger rescues your drowning dog and walks away unidentified. Is that act grace? I’m not sure. Grace seems more ongoing and durable to me than a single selfless moment. Grace endures. And somehow this thought leads me on to women.
Every man should contemplate grace because some are loved by a woman. No man deserves this love, this grace. A woman just decides one day that this guy’s the one for her and, against all reason and accountability[1], she takes him to her heart and that’s that! If you’re one of those fellas, go to church today and light a candle. That woman brings you the grace of God.
When blackberries lined the lane
You brushed my hand and
Hold it yet as winter’s tide
Tops the reef at Red Strand.
Black stained lips still
Kiss mine with urgency
From time to time
Echoing that first embrace.
Will I love you less for wayward
Gray I sometimes find
Or lines which sun paints
At the corners of your eyes?
I who by your grace
Find beauty in every breath
And yet thrill to your smile. [1] In the Jack Nicholson movie, “As Good As It Gets,” a nubile receptionist gushes up to the curmudgeonly romance fiction writer played by Nicholson and asks him how he can write so truthfully about women. To this Nicholson growls, “It’s easy. I just think of a man and take away all reason and accountability.” The line is good for a laugh, but the script writer was onto something.
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