Defining Grace
My memoir, Defining Grace: Showing Up with the Gift of Divine Mischief, was published on August 14, 2026, by Sunbury Press in Boiling Springs, PA! You can find ordering information here or on my updated website: www.gracefulmischief.com, where subscribers will receive news about book events. Join me in Graceful Mischief!
It’s difficult to define Grace. Unbidden and unearned, Grace has a divine way of showing up, often with a fair amount of mischief. I have noticed many fortuitous synchronicities in my life so far and have come to understand them as Grace Tracks. I cannot see Grace, but I can see where She’s been. I would like to think that Grace is always present. I am simply invited to be open to Her love. If that’s true for me, it’s true for you too.
I hope you enjoy reading Defining Grace and that we can show up together with the Gift of Divine Mischief. There are prompts for exploring your own Grace Tracks with each chapter.
Defining Grace begins with my childhood experience of low expectations. Grace showed up when my name was called with honors at my high school commencement. There was a bolt of lightning, a clap of thunder, and the fire alarm went off! Shipley’s motto is still “Courage for the Deed. Grace for the Doing.”
At Skidmore College, I learned to lead, lose an election, and dance with my dad at “Happy Pappy” weekend. I had a double major in Government and History and a minor in Geology. Fifty years later, Skidmore gave me their Creative Thought Matters Award of Distinction at my 50th reunion.
After college, I wandered through life in search of I wasn’t sure what. I earned an MBA, worked in the corporate world, taught at the collegiate level, and owned businesses in consulting, manufacturing, and retail. Ironically, I discovered my purpose in the loss of my only child by miscarriage six months before turning forty.
It changed my life when I chose to see my child in the eyes of every child. Since then, I have founded three social profits and have learned how to truly love. Grace has been my guide. She even told me the name of my child, Grace Gaia, Grace on Earth. It’s my job to embody Grace on Earth, to change the operating system of the world from one based on fear to one inspired by love. Grace reminded me that I need a lot of help in realizing my life’s purpose. Please join me in defining Grace.
May we see the Grace in ourselves and in each other. May we love ourselves and each other into new, sustainable, positive possibilities. The world needs love and Grace now more than ever.