Happy New Year!
It’s Advent. It is amazing and weird that it has once again arrived at our busiest, most distracted time of the year. I know it is coming and yet it always arrives like a surprise.
Advent has a distinct character. Often mistaken for somber or penitential, Advent’s focus on anticipation and preparation can be kind of…intense. Which can unleash a bit of sternness in us. This is especially odd when people expect us to be jolly and festive.
Advent is not supposed to be so judgey or dismissive, however. It is a season of watching, observing. So, like a novelist observes people who will fill her imagination when she sits down to write or a painter collects images to populate his paintings, we aren’t feverishly getting ready for the big day so much as seeing our world with new eyes.
Join me and many others this year at adventword.org: a global Advent Calendar filled with people’s creativity from around the world. Each day, we share something from our world that fits the day’s theme. A bit of observing, creating, hoping, and craving.
Drew