Tis the season… the season of Advent.  For those of you who don’t participate in a church that follows a traditional liturgy, this term may only remind you of calendars with chocolate pieces in them.  In actuality, Advent is a season of the Church year.  It’s the beginning of the year, in fact.  Also, it is the mirror image of Lent.  While in Lent, we are penitent, and oftentimes sacrificing something for 40 days until the coming of Easter, in Advent, we find ourselves also waiting… for the berth of the One who brings us into Reconciliation–the One who is the tangible example of Divine Love.  The One–the Messiah.

Now, this isn’t a church lesson–this is a thought, a spirit to carry with you this Advent season.  This is the season in which we are quietly and attentively focused on the coming… of Christmas.  We are laying in wait for that momentous day.  Those of you whom have borne children know that when you’re waiting, you are still–anxious with anticipation.  Oftentimes we busy ourselves while waiting for something big to make the time pass faster.  I believe that the neurotic shopping sprees, decorating, and preparation are a part of that.  Preparation leads us swiftly into Christmas (which is a season, not a day).  The thing is… have you ever missed something important while busily working to speed up the waiting period?  While waiting on that day in which you were to bring the baby into the world, were there not moments in which you simply had to stop to witness the baby’s kicks in utero?  You wanted to experience it, and wondered if you’d noticed that first time.

This is what we do.  We–Western, Aristotelian, living to work Americans– work, we shop, we overconsume, we overpurchase, we overwork to pay off those purchases, and we overdo it.  And, we wonder why we miss things.  We wonder why time keeps passing on so quickly, why we feel like our children grow overnight, when that first grey hair came in, and where the time went.  We wonder because we don’t take time to have a tangible spiritual, edifying experience.  i ask you to stop this season.  Stop the shopping, stop the decorating, stop the active preparation.  Take time out to sit and be still.  Take time out to meditate on the Love that passes all understanding.  Take time out to just be.  Take time to be a human being–not a human doing.  Take time to pray, to meditate, to ruminate, to receive.  Take a few minutes each day.  It’s Advent–people have been doing it for about 2000 years.  Jump on the bandwagon to a slowed down existence.

Stop.  Listen.  Be.  Accept.  Prepare.

Happy Advent.  I look forward to seeing you on the other side of it on December 25 at 12:01 am.

-Tamika