©2024 April Hoeller
Morning on this third Sunday of Advent has dawned with a tease of muted sunshine amidst weather advisories of freezing rain and ice accretion. The hint of a traditional Christmas landscape outside my door today will likely suffer a serious setback and my dream of white Christmas is fading fast.
But here in my space, three candles - hope, peace, and today, Joy - bring welcome light into my day. As is my custom, I linger over the flames, warming my hands and bathing my face in the glow, resting in the moment.
Joy is not something that I can seek, nor make happen. It is something that overtakes me in the quiet moments. My mind is crowded to the brim with lists, places to be and things to do. It's daunting! But just in the nick of time Advent III has arrived with the invitation to enter a blessed sanctuary away from the news feeds, the controversies, the noise, and the ToDo list. This week holds open a time for me to listen for the footfall of joy and when I hear it, step right up and join in the fun.
©2024 April Hoeller
On this Second Sunday of Advent two candles are lit - hope and then peace. My hand trembles with hesitation while a sigh escapes my through my lips as I take match to wick on that second candle.
Peace eh? Is there any point in this world gone mad with aggression to even entertain the concept of peace however symbolic it may be?
It seems to me that a kind of madness continues to grip the world and pushes even deeper into darkness with each passing day, month, and year. I despair for the future. Hope, peace, joy, and love, the themes of these next four weeks before Christmas, feel like some wild fantasy not worth the effort to even think about. And yet, the great wheel of time, the one sure constant upheld by the cosmic wonders of the sun, the moon and tides, has transported all of us, willing or not, to this time and place once again. It is Advent.
...and consoled by the promise of light offered by a single candle on my Advent hearth this morning, I once again push out the Advent boat across this season of quiet expectation searching for lights of hope, peace, joy, and love.
I've lost count how many years that I have shared my reflections for Advent. In the past, each day has offered some words and images to convey the theme of the week. But I'm tired of words. These past months a barrage of words has flooded my days. Angry, insulting, despicable words that fly in the face of sense and sensibility pepper communications of all kinds. It is a cacophony that I can no longer abide. So this Advent, there will only be words on the Sundays while the rest of week I will post an image or maybe two, an offering of silent reflection.
Come join me in the silent places.
Let's light up the darkness!
©2024 April Hoeller
