Advent in Seasons of Uncertainty

This is from 2015, and yet, I find myself sharing it again this year,  because I find myself once again in a place of uncertainty.

—

Thanksgiving weekend and Advent Sunday were one this year, like sabbaths multiplied, rolling in with rest for our souls.

And in this low-flung latitude, we stayed together, worshipping in the multitude of Small Things, the blessings given, the blessings withheld until such time as our hearts might hold them, the clouds bunched up, tumbling over and over each other like eager children, walled up against nonexistent mountains, pausing before an abrupt change of mind, dashing away again before falling, like rambunctious children collapsing with laughter despite it all, because of it all, in glorious Light of it all.

And with Thanksgiving and Advent colliding, we give thanks for the gratitudes heaped upon gratitudes.

This unpredictable season, the familiar routines carried out, the sprinkling of anticipation in the air, the hope that fills our hearts against all hope — the Hope that staves off despair, the hope that fights, the hope that holds on, the hope that illuminates joy we otherwise would have passed by.

For this and much more, Father we thank Thee.
For the Hope that springs anew, we thank Thee.
For the incarnation miraculously birthed out of terrified solitude in a stranger’s land, Lord, we thank thee.

For all that we do not know, Lord, we thank Thee.

“Stability is greatly
over-rated,” sings the poet Luci Shaw,
and I listen intently, my knees pulled up to my chest.
“Why would he ever want to sit
still and smug as a rock,
confident, because of his great
weight, that he will not
be moved?
Better to be soft as water,
easily troubled, with
at least three modes
of being, able to shape-      
shift, to mirror, to cleanse,
to drift downstream,
To roar when he encounters
the rock.”
-Luci Shaw

And I see now what she means.

I see that perhaps Advent, like the First Advent, is most deeply celebrated in seasons of uncertainty.
—

Credits: Red Suede Toi Toi Shoes c/o Livie & Luca 

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