Kirkepiscatoid

A friend sent me this photo the other day; she was taking a walk, and saw this flower growing right out of a pile of gravel. It was a reminder to me, she said, how often that "soft and wonderful things can grow up in the midst of things that are ugly and hard." The photo got me to remembering yesterday that Advent is coming, yes, indeed, it most certainly is...

Something that really hits home with me as I get into the "season of waiting" is that one of the most beautiful things that ever happened in this world was that the savior of the world was flopped out in a barn, in straw and cow shit and dirt and blood, and at the time, nobody gave a rat’s ass about it except Mary and Joseph and maybe the innkeeper who was thinking, “Oh, hell, I hope that pregnant woman doesn’t pop that kid of theirs while they’re here.”

Our Wal-Mart already is getting ready to gear up for Christmas...the toy aisle is growing...the Halloween aisle is shrinking a little...our Kiwi liturgist of the blogosphere, Bosco Peters, has a great post on his blog about that little issue. It's worth a read.

The secular Christmas season (aka the dark side of Advent) is always a weird season for me. Not so much depressing as some folks experience (the "Blue Christmas" phenomenon) for me, just weird. It was never a very good season at my house growing up. For many years, I was quite the Grinch about it all. But about two years ago (as chronicled in this blog) I started at least making peace with the "darkness" of Advent. I am sensing I need to move one step past this for this year.

I think part of my preparation this season is to do a little more than just be comfortable with the dark of it, and start to see that "flower growing out of the gravel pile." I am suspecting that will be a healing experience for me. Stay tuned.