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Posts from the ‘Advent’ Category

Dec 1

Small Pieces

“The waiting of Advent teaches us to live in increments, in small pieces rather than large chunks. Waiting also teaches us to measure our progress slowly.” — Reverend Holly Whitcomb

“Love, I think, is a gateway to the world, not an escape from it.”― Mark Doty

Lots of choices.
In our control.
Things to check off.
Next thing to rush off to do.
Activities over experience.
Or…
Slowing, kindness, presence, patience, awe, gratitude, forgiveness, generosity, reflection, curiosity, inquiry, wonder, laughter, joy, peace, love.
Daily decisions.
Choose well.

“At the end of my life, when I say one final What have I done?, let my answer be, I have done love.”― Jennifer Pastiloff, On Being Human

Nov 30

Elected Silence

“Life is so urgent it necessitates living slow.”― Ann Voskamp

“ELECTED Silence, sing to me
And beat upon my whorlèd ear,
Pipe me to pastures still and be
The music that I care to hear.”
― Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and Prose

In slowness, depth, breadth, width
Soften, yield, open
In quietness, rhythm, flow, music
Stillness, witness, wonder
In reflection, gratitude, grace, awe
Center, root, anchor
Sacred ground, sit and stay awhile.

“The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before… So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running.” —Jan L. Richardson

Dec 19

Find and Become

“poetry is motion graceful
as a fawn
gentle as a teardrop
strong like the eye
finding peace in a crowded room”
― Nikki Giovanni

“By all means use sometimes to be alone.
Salute thyself: see what thy soul doth wear.
Dare to look in thy chest; for ’tis thine own:
And tumble up and down what thou find’st there.
Who cannot rest till he good fellows find,
He breaks up house, turns out of doors his mind.”
― George Herbert, The Temple: The Poetry of George Herbert

Hush over rush.
Pause over speed.
Quiet over noise.
Attention held.
Patterns weaving.
Connections creating.
From chaos to order and beauty.
Renewal and nourishment.
In reflection, gratitude.
In today, treasure.
To find, and become peace.

“In the creation story, God entered chaos and made order and beauty. In making my bed I reflected that creative act in the tiniest, most ordinary way. In my small chaos, I made small order.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Dec 16

Bright, Bold, Wide Love

“We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness.”― Francis Chan, Crazy Love

A Blessing for Compassion for All by Kate Bowler

“Blessed are we, God’s beloved.
Whether we bask in happiness of a season of opportunities
or find ourselves bracing against a fresh storm of hard things.

Blessed are you who are sad and sore,
waiting for the next breath to come more easily.
You are here, and you are loved.

Blessed are you who carry your joy openly,
in the happiness of longings fulfilled.
You are here, and you are loved.

Welcome all, look around!
We might change places tomorrow,
but for now, we are all together
as those who are the beloved of God.

We have been looped together
into the wideness of God’s compassion,
into the kinship of the imperfect
who are perfectly loved.

Blessed are we, eyes wide open
to the fact that there’s nothing like it,
this love that generates love exponentially:
it doesn’t detract.
It only gives.

Here in Advent we see its coming
gentle as the dawn,
healing as sunlight.
Love that actively grows us into our truest selves.
People who can love
just like that.”

One week to Christmas.
The rush.
The jamming one more thing in.
The hurry and hustle.
Or not.
To choose differently rather than habitually.
To see and partake in the fullness of this day.
To dare to pause, gaze, kneel.
In wonder, awe, reverence.
If but for a moment or two.
Wide, deep, exponential love.
Receive and give.

“All worldly joys go less
To the one joy of doing kindnesses.”
― George Herbert, The Complete Poetry

Dec 11

2 Comments

To the Earth Below

“You know that the antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest? … The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.”― David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea

Winter Snow
Lyrics by Chris Tomlin, sung by Audrey Assad

“You could’ve come like a mighty storm
With all the strength of a hurricane
You could’ve come like a forest fire
With the power of heaven in Your flame

But You came like a winter snow
Quiet and soft and slow
Falling from the sky in the night
To the Earth below

Oh, You could’ve swept in like a tidal wave
Or a big ocean to ravish our hearts
You could have come through like a roaring flood
To wipe away the things that we’ve scarred

Oh, but He came like a winter snow
So quiet, so soft, so slow
Falling from the sky in the night
To the Earth below”

Waking to a coating of fresh snow.
First real one of the season.
A surprise.
Quiet. Soft. Slow.
Still. Small. Hidden.
Present.
Beautiful.
Advent summed up.
Let it unfold in your heart.
In the waiting.
In the winding roads.
In the delays and detours.
Spring blooming in winter.

“But what would that be like
feeling the tide rise
out of the numbness inside”― David Whyte, Where Many Rivers Meet

Dec 6

1 Comment

Opaque Guidance

“Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually. Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of us.”― Mary Oliver, Devotions: A Read with Jenna Pick: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

“Knowing is a pilgrimage. It requires taking personal responsibility, born of love, to pledge allegiance to what we do not yet know. It requires relying on seemingly opaque guidance to venture into the darkness of half-understanding. We invite its gracious and surprising self-disclosure, seeking to indwell its clues to make sense of a hidden pattern. We risk our forever being changed. It is an adventure.”― Esther Lightcap Meek, A Little Manual for Knowing

Futility of shortcuts, bypasses.
Demanding others, circumstances to change, the past to return.
Or.
Taking our own journey.
Off path, eyes on the road ahead, rooted in today.
Into unknowing, inquiry, observing.
Taking the pilgrimage with intent and resolve.
To change, be changed, transformed.
Born again and again.
Curiosity rather than resistance.
Indwelling, seed sowing, fertile ground, preparation, waiting, watering, more waiting.
The makings of Advent, of springs sure return, of perpetual growth.

“Congratulations, if you have changed.”― Mary Oliver, Devotions: A Read with Jenna Pick: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

Dec 2

Season of Light

“There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It draws no attention to itself though it is always secretly there. It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility and our hearts to love life.” – John O’Donohue

“That luminous part of you that exists beyond personality–your soul, if you will–is as bright and shining as any that has ever been….Clear away everything that keeps you separate from this secret luminous place. Believe it exists, come to know it better, nurture it, share its fruits tirelessly.”― George Saunders

Luminous.
Light.
Energy.
Thin spaces.
Quiet, steady light within.
Shine.
Christmas unfolding slowly.
Enter the season of light.

“During Advent, we occupy our greatest longings.”– Ruth Haley Barton

Dec 1

Roses in December

“God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.”― J.M. Barrie

A Blessing for Beginning Again in Advent by Kate Bowler

God, could this be the year when we see it?
The goodness that is coming,
like starlight from a distant time?

Could this be the Advent when we sense it?
That the springtime of the soul
will one day last forever?

Could this be the Advent when we notice
the inbreaking of your coming promises?
Promises full of blessing:
of truth so clear, so bright
that every shadowy lie must flee away.

Of compassion so deep, so strong
that everyone is encircled in its embrace.
Of restoration so complete, so beautiful
that there is gladness everywhere.
And of justice so satisfying and so right,
that all will be well.

May this Advent be the new beginning,
as we learn to live by the light
of your coming promises.

Glimpsing the world through tears,
while also seeing something
sacred shining through too.

Our Truth. Our Light.
Our Promise incarnate.
Amen.”

First day, last month.
First day of Advent.
The journey all are invited too.
All.
Accept the invitation.
No rules, regulations or membership card required.
May this first day of Advent, first day of the last month of this year.
Be filled with reflection, inquiry, longing, belonging, listening, transformation.
New beginnings, the invitation to all, not some or few.
Trust the anchor.
Hope the kite.
Light in the dark.
Roses in December.

Nov 24

Slowly Journey to Christmas

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” – Norman Vincent Peale

“to follow God does not often mean traveling with certainty about where God will lead us. Rather, following God propels us to be present to the place where we are, for this is the very place where God shows up.”― Jan L. Richardson, Through the Advent Door: Entering a Contemplative Christmas

Crossing the threshold from ordinary time to the season of Advent.
The journey to Christmas.
Walk slowly.
Present and awake.
Anticipation.
Inviting.
Welcoming.
Seeing the light in all and everyone.
For that is the gift we are still given today since the first Christmas.

“See the light in others, and treat them as if that is all you see.”― Wayne W. Dyer

Dec 28

The Trifles

“when journeying with God some of the best parts of any pilgrimage are the detours.”― Margaret Feinberg, Wonderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God

“She is not wearied with our littleness; her smile comes down to us like a benediction through the sea of flickering candles, and she blesses our wild flowers withering at her feet. For each one of us is “another Christ”; each one, to Mary, is her only child. It is therefore not tedious to her to hear the trifles that we tell her, to look at the bruises that we bring to her, and seeing our wound of sin, to heal it.”― Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God: A New Edition of a Spiritual Classic

I heard the quote above read on the Abiding Together podcast and was struck not only by the quote but by the one reading it tearing up as she spoke it.
“Not tedious to her to hear the trifles…bruises…wounds…to heal it.”
We’ve become too hard, pragmatic, logical, cynical, flat.
Little stops us in our tracks in awe, reverence and wonder.
Be vulnerable.
Pause, look, listen.
Soften.
Smooth the edges.
God is so much bigger than we make, define, contain, explain.
Not wearied by our littleness and loving us the same, always without condition.
Found in the trifles, cracks and crevices of ordinary days, waiting for us to notice.

“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.”― Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

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