graced with...

I'm reading a book called Graceling by Kristin Cashore.
It's a land of seven kingdoms and seven thoroughly unpredictable kings. It's a world where certain people are 'Graced' with miraculous abilities. No one can tell you what your Grace is... but when it emerges, you will know.

"In a world where people born with an extreme skill - called a Grace - are feared and exploited, Katsa carries the burden of the skill even she despises: the Grace of killing. She lives under the command of her uncle Randa, King of the Middluns, and is expected to execute his dirty work, punishing and torturing anyone who displeases him."  -GoodReads

Kasta sees her Grace as a curse. She hates how her skill defines her.


But then... Spoiler Alert...


Kasta has a shift in awareness or perspective... she discovers that her Grace isn't killing; her Grace is survival. It's a subtle shift, but with it she is liberated. From this new perspective on her life & her talents she is able to begin life anew.


This book has left me questioning...
What is my Grace? And... am I sure?


Maybe you think your talent is music or writing or soccer or painting or cooking...
But maybe your talent isn't what it appears to be; maybe it is something deeper.


Maybe your talent isn't just writing (limited to the page or the screen); maybe it's self-expression, or persuasion, or inspiration, or...


Like Kasta, dig a little deeper. What is your true Grace... what's behind what defines you?




* Something I love...
In the dedication of Graceling, Krisin Cashore writes:
For my mother, Nedda Previtera Cashore, who has a meatball Grace,
and my father, J. Michael Cashore, who is Graced with losing (and finding) his glasses.