Tuesday, December 19, 2023

All About the Expectation

Almost Solstice, Still Advent
Thanks to my friend Steven
for this serene illustration of approaching Winter,
"where more light replaces less"
Artist: Wendy Andrew ~ Facebook

Not sure if you'll be getting what you want for Christmas this year? The following Advent readings reminded me that we already have a surfeit of gifts:

From Pastor Nadia Bolz - Weber:
Not Feeling "Christmas-y"?

I can stop treating my life as a reward, when it is really a gift. . . .

Because this pattern of time, this story, these rituals and practices and songs have gone on long before us and will continue long after us. . . .

. . . may your vision be sharpened to take in what you missed during all those years you saw what you expected to see and felt what you expected to feel. . . .

and

From Architect Duo Dickinson
Circles Of Hell In First World Problems

We are just us, with all the gifts and flaws and hopes and fears they impose on us.

Because we were given them. But some us can hear Faith in the fear, Grace in the hope, even happiness in moments when our full incompetence does not matter. Perhaps at death, surely at birth.

This is the conspired Advent, where more light replaces less . . . . . . I did not get what I expected to get (I expected getting, because I wanted.)


**********

As my friend Joni always says,
"Everything is Gift":


a lone autumn leaf, a holiday mantelpiece,
a cozy chair, an AWEsome book; the list is endless.

**********

A Gift
Thanks to Thomas Jay Oord
for the use of these breathtaking photos
See also:
Katherine May ~ Loreena McKennitt ~ Margaret Renkl

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