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Advent: The gift of slowing down in December
This Saturday morning, I offer an excerpt from Barbara Mahany, a blogger for Krista Tippett's dynamite show and website "On Being". with advent love to each of you.
Emily+
"And why? Why are we screeching the brakes, dialing down all the noise? Why are we ardently not joining in on a December punctuated by office-party folderol, and speed-dial shopping, and holiday cards canon-balled out of the printer, without so much as a touch of the human hand?
Because this is our one chance at December this year - and who knows how many Decembers we might have.
December is invitation. December is God whispering, "Please. Come. Closer."
Discover abundance within. Marvel at the gifts I've bestowed.
Listen for the pulsing questions within, the ones that beg - finally -to be asked, to be answered.
Am I doing what I love? Am I living the life I was so meant to live?
Am I savoring, or simply slogging along?
December is invitation. Glance out the window. Behold the silence of the first snowfall.
Stand under heaven's dome and watch the star-stitched wonder: Orion, Polaris.
Listen for the love songs of the Great Horned Owl. Be dazzled.
To be dazzled is a prayer.
Mary Oliver, the poet saint, tells us, "attentiveness is the root of all prayer."
And reminds us that our one task as we walk the snow-crusted woods
or startle to the night cry of the sky-crossing goose is "learning to be astonished."
An excerpt of an essay by Barbara Mahany, author of Slowing Time: Seeing the Sacred Outside Your Kitchen Door. Mahany is a former journalist and pediatric oncology nurse.
Link to the entire essay:
https://onbeing.org/blog/the-invitation-of-december/
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