For those of you not familiar with the church calendar, Advent is the season that leads up to Christmas. Advent is a time of waiting. A dark time metaphorically and literally as the calendar gives us the longest night of all the year within these days. It is a time meant for reflection- not as in the reflection of Lent, but reflection on what awaits. For Christians, it is the coming of Christ in the flesh. A babe in the manger. But regardless of your faith status, we wait in expectation during the month of December for what is to come.
We await the coming of friends and family, we await gifts exchanged over a holiday, we await days off from work, we await the new year.
December really is the only month on the calendar that requires us to wait upon impending, well, impending, known, happiness.
December as a month is a gift in itself.
I haven't written in a while, I'm ashamed to say. We've all heard the adage that if you really love something you'll find a way to get it done. Does that mean I don't love writing? No. I truly do love writing, but this season I seem to be in my own personal Advent of words, anticipating the day when my fingers will speed across the keys and characters and their lives will spring forth.
But over the past few months my office has remained cold (metaphorically and literally- it's the pantry, which seems to be the coldest part of the house), my desk messy, my computer (too old really to be writing on- I just can't find one that is the new "it") covered with receipts, mail, library magazines filled with reviews of new books that I NEED to look at, so I can start reading again (I started three books this month and couldn't finish any of them-NOT to the fault of the authors mind you), and basic clutter.
And it has felt too overwhelming to clear away.
Work is busy, extra curricular jobs demanding, the Wisconsin cold- COLD. There's a thousand excuses, real and imagined, I can come up with. I wish I knew which was the real one that stops me from sitting down and writing.
But Advent is over. The waiting is over. A new season has begun-- the Christmas season of expectation known! So maybe that is why I cleared myself a space while the cupcakes were baking this morning (and yes, I lost a tiny piece of egg shell in it and couldn't find it!!) and sat down to type this up (the start of which I wrote on an envelope a few weeks ago- of course, that envelope is part of the clutter I had to clear away).
And maybe this little blog post (and the earlier picture I posted because when I let the dog out, the frost ice on the greenery felt beautiful to me) will be the impetus I need to make writing my habit again. To find the time amidst the requirements of my life to do the joy of my life!
May 2023 be the impetus we all need to DO the JOY of LIFE- whatever that may be!