ADVENT

1. the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.
2. the first season of the Christian church year, leading up to Christmas and including the four

Tomorrow marks the first Sunday in the liturgical season of Advent. For Christians, it is a time to look forward to the gift of the Christ child, the babe born in an stark animal manger in a feeding troth. It is a time to look back on the reason for the season but also look ahead to the coming of Christ who one day, in God’s own time, will restore heaven and earth and bring peace and reconciliation to Jew and Gentile.the Christ child, the babe born in an stark animal manger in a feeding troth. It is a time to look back on the reason for the season but also look ahead to the coming of Christ who one day, in God’s own time, will restore heaven and earth and bring peace and reconciliation to Jew and Gentile.

Advent is a season to prepare for new beginnings. This Advent I will begin a new chapter in my life as I move to Upstate NY to live in a Tiny House on the property of my daughter, son-in-law, and five grandchildren. Briley will have an 85 acre sheep farm to roam. While I won’t be going off the grid, I will be slowing down. I am retiring from driving. I have sold my personal computer and many other non-essentials. I will still be engaging the world but in a more deliberate manner. In fact that is my chosen word to pause and reflect on this season – “deliberate.” By being more deliberate and deliberating on my daily life, I believe God will help me become more balanced. My manic and depressive episodes be less severe. I will accomplish more by doing less.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”
― Henry David Thoreau

P.S. One more week in my beloved Hoosier state before I head for my new home in the beauteous Adirondacks. I will be slowing down but not totally going off the grid. I’m turning over some responsibilities for social media promotion and plan to do more writing with pen and paper.