It’s an end of the year exercise. Do I want or need this? Does this bring me Peace? Does this clutter up my dreams?
Can i let things go?
Can I just sit in my chair and read a romance… which i love to do this time of year!
Sort, shuffle, straighten, read. Maybe even write a little.
Ah the glories of the days in between. No deep thoughts. Just sweet longings for Peace and trying to clear a path through the holiday clutter to the essence of it.
I don’t know about you, but I received some books for Christmas. Oh, how happy that makes me. (I don’t know about you, but I helped in the number of books coming in!)
And that’s what Sunday’s (my Sabbath) are for. Catching up on my reading. There’s been wonderful visiting and wonderful food. But oh a salad sounds appetizing. Longing for the low key…
I enjoy the time between these two holidays. There’s a little lull. Not a lot gets accomplished. Not a lot of requirements. Maybe some visits, but they’re very low key.
Plenty of time to contemplate the year gone by and consider the one coming.
Our weather adds to the feeling. Nothing but grey days and nights. Neither the Sun or the Moon makes it through haze.
Quiet. Peace. Contemplation.
Lovely.
Second Day Christmas is a lovely day in my world. On the second day of many holidays, Steve and I make our way to his brother’s house by the river and celebrate with his family in a lovely and low key celebration. After all the excitement of presents and crowds, there is quite love and a twinkling tree and leftovers watching the river go by and the eagles sail.
Today only deepens the gratitude. Christmas is hard for me because I’ve lost so many in the family… and yet here is this part of my family, faithful and present.
And that fills my heart! And strengthens me for the journey.
I wish you a lovely day filled with Love and Peace. Twelve of them, since that’s how long we’re to celebrate! And if we can do it for twelve days, maybe we can keep going!
However you celebrated, i hope it was happy and filled with Peace! the good news. Shopping is finished. Nothing but family and fun left on the agenda! (And did you see that full Moon? more tonight!)
Peace and Blessings, Ann
Peace is a tiny tentative thing, in need of our nurturance and tender care.
For me, this is the heart of the Christmas message, this is what I wish for us all, that we be those who welcome and care for Peace.
Tomorrow Christians all over the world celebrate the birth of Jesus, their Savior, a baby, whose life’s work was Love and Peace.
Whatever we celebrate tomorrow and even if we don’t celebrate, may we all welcome Peace and Love.
Alternative Advent – December 24: 5¢ for every blanket in your house.
To finish out this series, it’s suggested that you donate 15¢ for every gift a member of your family received…
Oh! It sounds as if we’ll have to hope, hope, hope to see this year’s last Full Moon. Lots of rain in our forecast — which we need… Weather’s completely out of whack… but Monday they predict snow! Ah but whether or not we see it, there will be a full Moon. Even if Santa flies above the clouds, he’s going to need Rudolph’s help to get to the right addresses here on the ground…
Oh, right, Peace. I think it’s important to voice our allegiances. We must say out loud that Peace matters, and that we are dedicated to it. It reinforces it in our own hearts/minds/bodies and it lets the world know that we care about Peace. That they can care about Peace. That we can make a difference.
It’s our difference to make. Politicians will be politicians. People in power will protect their vested interests. We, the people, we get to model the Love that we will then demand of our elected officials.
At its heart, Advent is a time of preparation and dedication. Do we want Peace on Earth? We need to consider this. And if our answer is the resounding Yes! I hope it is, we need to proclaim it and commit to it.
Today a Muslim family was flying from Gatwick to Florida to go to Disneyland and were barred from boarding a plane. Who are we? We get to answer that question. Today I was a proud signer of a letter to the editor in our local paper decrying Islamaphobia. Proclaim Peace. Our humanity demands it. People’s safety depends upon it. Peace be with you.
Alternative Advent – December 23: 15¢ for every bedroom you have in your house.
If Peace is what I long for and speak for and work for, then I must have support for that work.
I must find internal support — for me that’s my spiritual practice. As an extrovert and an activist, I don’t always find enough time for my practice. Oh it was sweet yesterday to walk the labyrinth on the Solstice. Remember Ann, remember. find time for that.
And then there is the community. I am so joyful at the community support and interaction that I enjoy — and that I’ve finally figured out how to live in that. I’ve always been such a loner… not an easy characteristic for an extrovert!
But supporting: both being supported and being supportive. Both of these are crucial to our quest for Peace — and Peace on Earth and with the Earth is crucial to our well-being.
Supporting Peace. During Advent and the rest of the year.
Alternative Advent – December 22: 20¢ for every meal you ate in a restaurant this week.
How much more than the title do we need to say?
Side-by-side coexistence… a great start to joyful mingling.
But because we will always have differences, co-existence is going to be a forever thing. We get confused about differences. Our intolerance causes a lot of problems. It causes a lot of violence.
I find this shocking and wrong. We must find our way to Love. Love is the answer to co-existence. Love brings us to Peace. We come to Love by way of our commitment to Peace. It’s all connected. Coexistence. Love. Peace. There’s a holiday wishlist. There’s a holiday to-do list!
And on the joyful coexistence list? It’s the Winter Solstice today. It’s really one of my most favorite days. Most people cheer because they think the days start getting longer… actually, they really hang out for a few days and stop getting shorter. But I love the Dark. I love the candlelit Mystery of this time, the songs, the story-telling, the discovery of new facets that only seem safe to examine in this sweet soft time. I also love the cold, crisp starlight of Deep Winter. Oh, hurrah.
Alternative Advent – December 21: 25¢ if you have a gas/electric law mower. Ha! No lawn; no lawn mower! I should probably give money for my wild joy at not being personally responsible for a particular piece of turf!
It seems that there is so much confusion these days. And some of the confusion, it often seems is about what it means to understand something. People look at something that’s different from their norm and they say they don’t understand… but they often seem to mean they don’t understand how something can be different from the way they see the world, and don’t want to look farther than that.
But understanding has to include acceptance, I think, don’t you? Acceptance of the reality — only then can we work to change things.
It’s a cold clear day here… feels like it should for the moment, even though temperatures will soar. Advent — a time of quiet waiting, deep listening, sweet anticipation. Today we light the fourth candle, Peace. The Sabbath — a time of respite, reflection and restoration. Peace — what we all so sorely need, what we must be engaged in.
Let there be Peace. May I be part of the wonderful journey. May you be my companion.
Alternative Advent — December 20: 10¢ for every non-water beverage you had today.
What we’ve come to think of as sharing tends to be the detailing loads of intimate information.
We try to teach our littles to share. Let Timmy play with your toy, Sally.
But as we get older, we’re often not so good at letting others play with our toys. (I had to stop and look this up. This sentence should read: as we become more affluent we’re often not to good at letting others play with our toys. What I was really interested in in this part is that rich people who live in economically diverse communities give more… We notice our neighbors.)
So then I looked up volunteering. Americans do it; but even those numbers are wonky.
And the clubs we join these days are not communal clubs but health clubs. We get our exercise alone… We don’t join fraternal organizations as frequently, even though there are more of them.
December and the Holidays are when people do think about others a bit more… but sharing with others, not just our resources, but also our hearts is something we need to do all year long. We don’t need to do this simply for our neighbors or our community, we need to do it because it fulfills us — and because we have so much. Everyone becomes more generous when someone models sharing… It changes the world. Softens it and enriches it.
Sharing helps us understand another’s view point, to see new possibilities.
Life is so much fuller when we share. We begin to Love people for who they are and how they think and live. We need to share because that makes Peace more possible. By any measure, that’s a good thing!
Alternative Advent – December 19: 5¢ for every window in your house.
