The Power of Grace

The Super Human Effect: Stories of the Moment When Everything Changes

by Grace J Power

The moment that everything changed for me happened when I was listening to a sermon at church, and the message was about seeing grace in every moment and in every circumstance. I listened intently and found myself wondering, “What is grace, really?” This question stuck with me. I started to look for grace in every circumstance of my life and since I wasn’t particularly clear on what grace was, I found it difficult to see. That week as I was journaling, I decided to delve into discovering what grace really meant. I started by looking up the definition in the dictionary. There was quite a long definition. I read:

grace   (gr s)

NOUN:

Seemingly effortless beauty or charm of movement, form, or proportion.

A characteristic or quality pleasing for its charm or refinement.

A sense of fitness or propriety.

A disposition to be generous or helpful; goodwill.

Mercy; clemency.

A favor rendered by one who need not do so; indulgence.

A temporary immunity or exemption; a reprieve.

Graces Greek & Roman MythologyThree sister goddesses, known in Greek mythology as Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia, who dispense charm and beauty.

gra·cious   (gr sh s)

ADJECTIVE:

Characterized by kindness and warm courtesy.

Characterized by tact and propriety:responded to the insult with gracious humor.

Of a merciful or compassionate nature.

Condescendingly courteous; indulgent.

Characterized by charm or beauty; graceful.

Characterized by elegance and good taste: gracious living.

Archaic Enjoying favor or grace; acceptable or pleasing.

As I was reading about these qualities of ‘grace’ I heard my thoughts say, “I love this word! I want this to be my name!” Then it was like I heard the sound of a bell ‘ding’! That was it! I am going to have Grace as my name. As I thought about this further, I decided it would be my middle name, since I never had a middle name. “MaryAnn Grace Probert. That sounds great!” I thought.

The next day, I called my good friend, Ben and told him that I was so amazed by the word grace that I was going to make it my name. He said, “That’s great! Do you want me to call you Grace?” I quickly thought about this and exclaimed, “Yes!”

Since I changed my mind to using Grace as my first name, I considered, ‘Why not change my whole entire name?’ And that is what I did.

A couple years previous to this, I had been through a divorce and changing my name from MaryAnn Benavides back to MaryAnn Probert felt rather awkward to me. I had been MaryAnn Benavides for four years and considered that it would be my name for the rest of my life. I also liked the name. Benavides means ‘the good life’ and I had considered keeping it. Although, when filling out the divorce documents I decided to go back to my maiden name, MaryAnn Probert which felt foreign to me as well as most of the people in my life. My English teacher in High School always pronounced my last name like the French Canadians, and I decided to pronounce my name with that accent since it gave it a different twist than what I grew up with. Still, I honestly felt a bit awkward about this. It just didn’t seem like ‘me’.

Now that I was inventing a new name for myself, I wanted to have a strong last name and it came to me at church one Sunday. The pastor was recognizing a group of new members to the church, and as he was reading off the names, it occurred to me that I should listen to the last names and see if any of them would fit for my new last name. Immediately after I thought about this, he announced a woman with the last name Powers. I liked it right away, and remember thinking, “That’s it!”

Again, I discussed this with my friend Ben over the phone wondering if I should use Powers or Power. He said, “I like Power best. Like One Power instead of mystical powers.” I trusted my friend’s advice. Then it was onto deciding, middle name?...no middle name?

I had a session with an Intuitive Reader and I asked her about the name change. She suggested looking at the numerology of the amount of letters used in the name.

A couple weeks went by as I pondered about choosing a middle name or not. My boyfriend had a book of gods in his library and I decided to skim through it for name ideas. As I read about various gods, I flipped to the page about Janus. This god intrigued me as I read that he represented the present moment. He had two heads, one facing forward and one facing backward, representing past and future. January is named after Janus since it represents the end of one year and beginning of the next. Since I was practicing living in the present moment, I decided this was the perfect name for me. I also had heard that the number 5 represents change. And each word (Grace Janus Power) has five letters.

With this new name declared, I have felt more like ‘me’ and each day I am living into this new name and seeing grace in every moment.