A Year Round Advent

Sometimes I wish Advent was year round. The children get so excited. Right now it's all about the stickers on the calendar and who gets to blow out the candles after our meal. But someday I hope they will think about the traditions we have created and find their own excitement during the season.

Christmas day is always lovely, as is the full 12 days after Christmas right through to Epiphany. But once Epiphany has come and gone there is a lull in the calendar until Lent. And while Lent is critically important spiritually, it doesn't have the same panache as Advent. Easter is a beautiful, mysterious, wondrous renewal of faith. But again, once Easter tide has come and gone, it seems forever before Advent returns. I suppose my real searching if I get down to it is where can I find the desire to search and wait and wonder during the rest of the year that I find during Advent and to some extent Lent? Would I be watering down the joy and passion of these two seasons were I to find a way to recreate them year round?

My Companions group's final meeting is tomorrow. We are discussing our rule of life. In researching our rule of life we are to determine the spiritual practices that will provide the most comfort, direction, growth, and meaning in our lives and add them in proportionate doses to our current spiritual lives. Seems like a tall order and it is. However I find myself excited about the potential for a new spiritual practice to help with the breadth and depth of my journey. I have decided to not act quickly--following the advice of our study author, but instead use the rest of Advent to wait for God to show me the way. I'm not much on waiting, nor am I good at it. This in and of itself will be a practice! I hope by the end of Christmastide that an Epiphany will await me and I will find a new direction in which to grow.

A blessed Advent to all of you. Peace be with you.