Grace Among Us
Grace Among Us is a podcast where we discuss the many faces and places of grace. Carri Richard and Ebony Gilbert’s desire is that you will join us and get inspired to notice grace in your own life and share it with others. Grace is free and unearned, and these days we need it more than ever. As a community, we can amplify grace and share the peace of grace with others. Have a question about grace or how grace can work in a situation? Reach us at community@grace-among-us.com and we’ll be happy to respond and it may become a topic in an episode.
Grace Among Us
037 - Replace your Game Face: Being Real is where Grace is
Grace often seems like a whispered secret, something that others possess but somehow eludes us in our moments of turmoil. Yet, what if I told you that grace could be your steadfast companion, an ever-present strength amidst life's twists and turns? Discover the transformative power of grace with my dear friend Ebony Gilbert, as we share our heartfelt conversation on its omnipresence in our lives. This episode is a journey into understanding how honesty, not perfection, invites grace into our daily experiences, from the holiday hustle to the quiet moments of reflection.
Ebony and I open up about the strength in vulnerability and the common misbelief that grace is a sign of weakness. We examine the paradox of needing grace when we seem to have everything under control and the profound impact of admitting our struggles. Like a dance with life itself, we discuss how to embrace change, support each other, and find resilience in flexibility and interconnectedness. Join us for an episode that promises to be a balm for the soul, offering insights on accessing grace at all times—yes, even when you're in boss mode!
Welcome to Grace Among Us, the podcast where we unearth the many faces and places of grace and share stories of the power of grace in our human lives. Our desire is that this will inspire you to see grace in your own life and share it with others.
Carri Richard:Hello, hello, my name is Carri Richard. I am a mindset coach and I help people make space and enjoy the ride, enjoy this beautiful life that's here for all of us. And I am doing one of my very favorite things, which you guys hear all the time, and it's to talk with my dear friend, Ebony Gilbert, about grace. So hey, hi, Ebony.
Ebony Gilbert:Hey Carri, good day, how are you?
Carri Richard:It is a good day. I am great. How are you?
Ebony Gilbert:If you're great, I'm great.
Carri Richard:Okay, good, sounds good.
Ebony Gilbert:Than we're great, let's be great. Okay, I am well, I'm very well. Thank you for asking.
Carri Richard:Yeah, absolutely. We had a little chit chat before we get on this spot and speak about grace and you know, one of the beautiful things about life and one of the things that is tough about life is everything is always changing, right, (Ebony- constantly). Yeah, and you know, I have a dad who's 90 and you know, and friends, myself, we're all aging. Things are shifting, life is changing and I don't always like it and, based on some experiences over the last week or so. T here's this concept. If I'm, the more real I am about the current situation, whatever is going on, the more access to grace I have.
Ebony Gilbert:I could not agree with you more.
Carri Richard:Yeah, and as we were speaking, it's like, okay, do I, do I put on my game face or do I ask for grace?
Ebony Gilbert:Yeah, I'm right there with you, particularly coming right off of the Christmas holiday, and I'm sure you were overwhelmed, as I was overwhelmed and had more on our plates than we probably bargained for. And you know, when you say asking for grace, sometimes it doesn't come out in the form of a question. You know, sometimes for me this past week, asking for grace was saying I can't do it by myself. It was hey, can you help me? I might need a little help or I'm not. When people little thing, when people say how are you feeling, how are you doing, what's going on, I'm like "I'm having a hard time, right now
Carri Richard:now yeah.
Ebony Gilbert:Just saying that opens this wide door. It's almost like these scoping glass doors that nobody even knew were there. They just start to open and all of a sudden the grace comes in, (Carri - absolutely).
Carri Richard:As you say that, it reminds me of this idea I hear often in different ways I don't have to be anything more than what I am right now to receive grace In this moment. In this moment, I don't have to be honest-er or be healthier or be anything or to receive all of the love and grace that's here for me. My humanness, my ego, pride, whatever wants to put this game face on that. I got it. I got it. But usually the more that I want to do that, the more I need grace in that moment. Right.
Ebony Gilbert:Right, and who's to say, carrie? You can't have it all together and be in charge of being in control and still need grace Like. Why are those two things different?
Carri Richard:I think you just ( I love it). You've nailed it. You've just nailed it. I need grace all the time.
Ebony Gilbert:All the time, even when I'm in boss mode, yeah, even when I'm knocking it out of the park, (Carri-because I'm not the boss anyway). Right, I still need, you know, my guy Big G up there, to come show up for me, because I'm not in boss mode without the big boss showing up for me. Yeah, so it's interesting the more vulnerable you are, the stronger you are. Yeah, yeah.
Carri Richard:Yeah, like a blade of grass, right, it bends in the wind. It's flexible in the wind, like that rigid. You know, it doesn't work.
Ebony Gilbert:I've never seen a blade of grass stand alone. I've never seen one blade of grass ever. You know, it's interesting. I'm about to be cheesy here for a second. Go with me. Okay, I was blurring my background before you came on screen and they had this option. Can you see this background now? Mm-hmm, they had this grass option and I thought to myself, " that's busy. And then you get on here with the grass reference and I'm like, well, how could being it? Because grace is this grass. Yeah, and when you make yourself vulnerable, this, this sea of grass that never stands alone, there's never one blade envelops you and all of a sudden, you're protected and you're covered with this sense of just. I'm a lawn freak. You guys have heard me talk about my grass before, so I love the reference. But this grass, this background, first of all, what are the odds that I'm scrolling through zoom backgrounds? I've never done that in my life, ever.
Carri Richard:It's a God. It's a God-cide nce".
Ebony Gilbert:And then you mentioned a blade of grass in the middle of this conversation. That's not even preplanned, and I remember that there's this stupid grass background that's really busy and I wasn't going to choose it. And now here it is, and here, here, here's the here what's coming to my mind right now. I chose the blur because I thought the blur was less busy and it, you know it just, it just hid my background, which is what I was trying to do. I was trying to hide it right, cause I'm not at home on my vacation and I ended up using the thing that I thought was too much or over the top. In reference to what you said about how being vulnerable and what we were talking about by being vulnerable, making you more strong, because the grass spins.
Ebony Gilbert:All of that coming together during this conversation is is mind blowing for me right now, cause I was trying to hide, and if I had just shown up as my authentic self and I really wanted to choose the grass, matter of fact, I was kind of tickled by it. I thought, yeah, grass, I love grass. If I had just chosen the authentic choice that I wanted to begin with, it may have even sparked a different route. We said we were supposed to say we do, we're supposed to do, we're here now, right, but what a real time example. I love that. Am I being a nerd right now?
Carri Richard:No, you're not being a nerd, I'm totally nerding out with you and I want to say that sometimes the grace is permission, right? And I had an experience this last week too, where you know something, something happened with one of my loved ones that I, I, I didn't like, I didn't like, and I was there for the experience. And you know, I wanted to scoop this person up and I wanted to make it okay. I wanted to because, really honestly, I was uncomfortable that it was happening, right.
Speaker 1:I love.
Carri Richard:I love this person dearly, but it also speaks to my discomfort and attachment and wanting things to be how they used to be, and as we age, that doesn't always happen. So, and by God's grace, I was able to just be present and allow it all to happen and to feel the feelings, and what came to mind is just allowing everyone the dignity of the experience.
Ebony Gilbert:Everybody's experience. You get the dignity of your experience, yeah. Yeah and they just see he or she gets the dignity of their experience. Yes monogram, brace Grace when it shows up for Keri Richard as CR. Yeah, grace when it shows up for Ebony Gilbert has a big EG on it and all those things can coexist in the same room. Yeah, and nobody has lacked because of it, you know, but you got to open those big glass doors of vulnerability and authenticity to allow it to come in.
Carri Richard:Absolutely, absolutely. That's good, I have one more that just came to mind. So so I have a challenge going on in my life right now that I don't like, and I have been trying to figure it out myself and I asked someone directly for help, somebody very close to me and they were willing to help and they said, "you know what? This has happened to me. And when they said that, I just I'm getting (Ebony - you didn't know that)
Carri Richard:I'm getting teary just in this moment. I have cried about it a couple of times because, first of all, I didn't know that, but second of all. What it, was that connection - like hey, I'm human too. Like, yeah, not the only one. It's okay, it's okay.
Ebony Gilbert:It's okay to be scared, it's okay to say I don't feel good about this, and you don't have to be right either, you can. It's okay to be paranoid sometimes, like it's just okay, you know? Yeah, and it's, it's really just okay. Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get a banner on my forehead. It's just okay, yeah.
Carri Richard:Okay, it's all right, there's no need for a game face.
Ebony Gilbert:There isn't. The grace is the game face. No, no more game face. Put on your grace face. Your grace face says show up how you woke up, show up with what's in your heart. Yeah, and it's allowed to change throughout the day.
Carri Richard:And that's what God works with. God works with the real stuff. He can't work with the fabricated stuff.
Ebony Gilbert:Yeah yeah. The clown face, yeah. The masquerade face. Yeah yeah, we're gonna practice putting on our grace face with ourselves, with ourselves. It allows for everybody else in the room to have a safe space to put theirs on as well. Yeah, yeah, it makes room. This is powerful. This wasn't our typical 30 minute, but this powerful, a little bit of time.
Carri Richard:Yes, perfect timing. I love the grass and I love you, Ebony.
Ebony Gilbert:I love you as well, Carri, I really do, and we will talk again soon. Yes, until then, grace out, grace out. Put on your grace face, amen.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know. We love to hear from you and share it with a friend. Also, please be sure to subscribe so you're notified when a new episode is posted. We hope you're leaving with another pointer to grace, a new perspective that will light it up in your own life. Until next time, be well, be bold, be kinder to yourself and be on the lookout.
