Advent Reflections

Dec 1: Proclaim.A fine organization called AdventWord is running a global event wherein they will post a word and a reflection a day for the liturgical season of Advent. I am Episcopalian to the bone,  so no matter how individual, amorphous, and irregular my observances may be,  I do keep my faith in practice.This year I am going to  free-write on that word o' the day. Five minutes. Advent. Season of preparation, pausing, scaling back, taking a breath, and all that.  (Not consumer frenzy. Huh. Not verra 'Murican of me, I s'pose, but call me old fashioned...)This is the way I choose this year to shoulder the reflective discipline, to prepare for Christ's birth or the return of the Sun, or wheeling of the stars to new patterns, or whatever aspect of Creation sings to my soul loudest in December's dark days. (I often wonder how different the rhythm of the seasons would be in the Southern Hemisphere, where Christmas comes at midsummer,  celebrating the birth of Christ with life bursting out all over, even as the days slide towards the year's death.) Hm. Symbolism.Digression. It's what happens when I freewrite.I'm technically several days behind, but I am not so much a stickler for letter of the law that I'll not bother because I started late.  I can make my spirit shine brighter by at least trying. And besides, growing up, we had a 24 day Advent Calendar, and that was that, regardless of what day marked the first Sunday.The Advent Wreath was much more the Christian symbol anyway. I still remember the first year we got to light the special PINK candle, the one that only got lit the years when there were FIVE Sundays before Christmas. And lo, there was awe and astonishment at the wonders of math and how dates would roll around to the same days of the week every seven calendars or so. Hey, cut me some slack. I was five or six or seven or something. Multiplication was pretty much magic addition.But I digress. (SURPRISE!)This is my proclamation. I will use these days in advance of the winter solstice and all the associated for reflection and sharing and discipline of writing exercise. Also known as an excuse to practice writing ideas straight from the brain to page without hesitation (hahahahahahahahahaha, no, that's a lie, I will hesitate and backspace and rearrange sentences as much as I want, YOU CAN'T STOP ME UNIVERSE!!!!)ahem. Okay, so I will write freely for five minutes as closely as I can and still make sense to a random reader, rather than make people worry about word salads and psychotic breaks and other worrisome worries like that.So in conclusion because I went over just then,  I'm going off-script, veering from the regular path of posts I've been scheduling the last couple of months.  I will have a few scheduled, but it's Advent, and Advent makes me think about things. When I think, I write, and when I write, I throw words out into the waters.Splash. Here we are.PS:  Today's feature pic is from last year's only big snow. In case anyone wondered.