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Posts from the ‘Advent’ Category

Dec 12

More than the Sum

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”― Hamilton Wright Mabie

“Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled—
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing—
that the light is everything—that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and falling. And I do.”
― Mary Oliver, House of Light

We count
Compare
Weigh
Measure
Do the math
The transaction
The efficiency
The formula
Zero-sum game

Living is in the essay
The story
More than the sum
Found in nuance
Connections
Interruptions
The unfolding
Imperfection
Mystery
Beauty
Grace
Vibrant, unexpected
Getting lost only to be found
Tripping and landing where we should be but didn’t plan on

Go be light in the darkness
Hope in the struggle
Joy in the not so straight nor smooth journey
Dazzling light powered by love.

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”― L.R. Knost

Dec 5

Interrupted

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.”― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

We interrupt autopilot, to-dos, busyness, chaos, boredom, ego, the monotony of this day.
To wake you up to gratitude, imperfect and amid struggle.
To laughter and joy woven into seasons of grief and loss.
To peace and ease in the backdrop of turmoil.
To quality and depth over quantity and surface.
To a new point of entry.
A return to self, the authentic not manufactured or curated.
A response to the still small voice.
A resounding Yes!
Life interrupted by lifeforce, goodness, light.
Plunge in.
To mystery, beauty, trust, hope.
A greater expanse awaits.
Be interrupted.
And changed.

“At some point we must plunge in to discover a greater expanse; yet when this broader horizon does appear, a new depth will open up at our point of entry.”― Edith Stein, Potency and Act

Dec 3

ADVENTure

 

“Out of the Darkness, Into the Light: The Time before Christmas is the Time of Light and mutual Love.”― Sir Kristian Goldmund Aumann, 24 Days Until Christmas: 24 Christmas Poems

“God travels wonderful ways with human beings, but he does not comply with the views and opinions of people. God does not go the way that people want to prescribe for him; rather, his way is beyond all comprehension, free and self-determined beyond all proof. Where reason is indignant, where our nature rebels, where our piety anxiously keeps us away: that is precisely where God loves to be. There he confounds the reason of the reasonable; there he aggravates our nature, our piety—that is where he wants to be, and no one can keep him from it. Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair, that he takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous. And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly…. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.”― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas

Expectancy.
Possibility.
A tough gritty hope.
Waiting.
Preparing.
More waiting.
Pushing.
Pulling.
Sitting silent.
A softening.
A wide-open field.
An invitation for all, not some.
Light in darkness.
A warm embrace.
Never giving up or giving in.
Persistent.
Resilient.
Beyond all comprehension.
May the season of Advent, of hope, anticipation, waiting, grace, overwhelming love overtake you with peace, wonder, joy and awe.

“The message of Advent doesn’t fit neatly into a sound-bite or vignette. It’s too complex, too deep, to compete with glitter and noise; and it’s a hard sell in a culture that would rather skip straight to the big finish. But Advent is too important to be forgotten, because it is this season that prepares us to encounter our Lord.”― Kerry van der Vinne, Advent: Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room

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