Image via WikipediaParticipating in an online Advent season program, last week I found myself suffocating in an avalanche of directions, music, activities, participant email comments, artwork, etc., until I suddenly threw on the brakes and realized that my over-achiever button was apparently clicked into the on position! Taking a deep breath I re-evaluated the instructions for participation and of course, as the program designers would have it - there was a plethora of tools for one's personal path through Advent - the plethora not meant to drown but to offer the participant a menu of life savers designed to SLOW down the season NOT complicate it. Once I clicked the proper settings on the site and settled down to the activity each day that was most comfortable for me, I found the silence and my mind at work in that silence to be a connector to the season rather than a detractor!
How silly it is that in my efforts to be silent, to await the coming of Christ, I would allow so many different directions to pull my actions away from rather than toward the season. For the remaining days of Advent, I plan to keep my crazy, control freak button switched off and my reflective, listening buttons clicked on. Clicked on to the reason for the season, the blessed celebration of the arrival of Jesus into the world as we know it on earth.
You, are your buttons and your gears all placed on fast forward, rush, excelerate, can't stop position? I hope not, but just in case, take a deep breath and realize that some things can wait, some things don't have to happen. Waiting in silence, in hopefulness, in reassurance - what a nicer mode of operation in which to welcome the Christ Child.
Happy Advent!
"some things can wait, some things don't have to happen. Waiting in silence, in hopefulness, in reassurance" - yes, so much nicer indeed. thanks for the great reminder!
ReplyDeleteI know I need to take this seriously, but I'm stuck on Plethora. It's a lot, I know, but how many Pleths make a Plethora? I'm sure it must be many, perhaps more Pleths than one can actually count. Waiting in Advent one could do worse than meditating on how many Pleths are in a Plethora.
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that - now trying the 'pause' button - against the tide the world - but trying.
ReplyDeleteHappy waiting