May you grow still enough to hear
the small noises earth makes
in preparing for the long sleep of winter,
so that you yourself may grow calm and grounded
deep within.
Quote: Br. David Steindel-Rast
Photo: Fabrice Villard
journey
new year – new day
Finish every day and be done with it…
You have done what you could;
some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
To-morrow is a new day;
you shall begin it well and serenely,
and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
In preparation for tomorrow, I am grateful for Emerson’s wisdom. It is a reminder for all of us to begin each day open handed and ready to receive all the day has to give.
As the sun sets on 2019 I treasure the moments, the memories and grieve the losses. Like the view in the image above, I will wake tomorrow knowing a new year stretches out in front of me – in front of all of us.
The year will fill soon enough. Begin it well.
Quote: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Photo: Neven Krcmarek
quote and image from Gratefulness.org
Advent II – Courage
the Visitation — Henry Ossawa Tanner
“Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences. To be courageous is to seat our feelings deeply in the body and in the world: to live up to and into the necessities of relationships that often already exist, with things we find we already care deeply about: with a person, a future, a possibility in society, or with an unknown that begs us on and always has begged us on.”
In this second week of Advent, we read of announcements, dreams and visitations. A child of God is to bear God’s child. Mary hurried to her cousin, Elizabeth, who was also with child. Both women were living into their motherhood. Each with a role in bringing God’s kingdom to the world.
Mary sought the comfort and strength of Elizabeth’s home. In that place, in presence of Elizabeth’s faith and wisdom, she knew she could share that which she felt deeply. She knew she could exclaim how magnificent this child would be. Mary knew Elizabeth would understand the courage it had taken for her to say “yes”.
In the mean time, angels are visiting Joseph in dreams to instill courage in him to take his betrothed and move ahead. A charge he would accept knowing all would face consequences.
The word for this second week of Advent is Courage.
Quote: David Whyte (Brain Pickings by Maria Popova)
A new year — Advent 1
And so a new year begins… in the Christian tradition, we mark another circle around the sun.
Today is the first Sunday of Advent – a time to begin anew. As the month of December begins energy pulls toward Christmas.
Every store we enter, every advertisement we see, many songs we hear — all focus on the importance of preparing for Christmas. This is often chaotic, stress-building preparation. Preparation far from the call to collect oneself and gather with others to intentionally listen for sounds of God’s arrival.
Advent is a time set apart to live with a sense of wonder and anticipation. It is a time to settle the noise around you, to wait for something to come- something exciting and new.
Does your heart race? Do you feel a bit unsettled?
Light a candle in the dark places and stay alert.
Thank you, Roger Hutchison, for this beautiful image of Advent1.
