Advent is for waiting.

"Waiting is essential to the spiritual life.

But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is not an empty waiting.

It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts

that makes already present what we wait for.

We are always waiting,

but we are waiting in the conviction

that we have already seen God's footsteps.

Waiting for God is an active, alert-

yes, joyful!-

waiting.

When we wait in expectation,

our whole beings are open to be surprised by joy.

It is this joyful expectation of God's coming

that offers vitality to our lives."

-Henri Nouwen

This joyful expectation.

So much joy in these days.

Set down here precisely.

all quotes from this.

"I praise each day splintered down,

splintered down and wrapped in time like a husk,

a husk of many colors spreading,

at dawn fast over the mountains split."

"If the Greeks had looked at Mount Baker all day,

their large and honest art would have broken,

and they would have gone fishing,

as these people do."

"'Teach me Thy ways, O Lord'

is, like all prayers,

a rash one..."

"All day long I feel created.

I can see the blown dust on the skin on the back of my hand,

the tiny trapezoids of chipped clay, moistened and breathed alive.

There are some created sheep in the pasture below me,

sheep set down here precisely,

just touching their blue shadows hoof to hoof on the grass.

Created gulls pock the air, rip great curved seams in the settled air;

I greet my created meal, amazed."

"Had she been new, or old?

Had she mated and laid her eggs,

had she done her work?"

"Of itself it is nothing,

but the view,

as they say,

is good."

"Is this the only final beauty:

the color of any skin in any light

and living, human eyes?"

"You spill your breath.

Nothing holds;

the whole show rolls."

"...all the landscape's occasions,

to all its weathers, colors and lights."

.my small cup of life.

loving my sunny tiny home in the spring.

loving filling it with friends and flowers.

my girls came over on sunday to help me garden.

kim went to the farm store with me the night before to help me pick the best seeds for cutting bouquets.

everyone out and about in the warmer weather

means afternoons at the park

and more spontaneous drop-by visits

(9th grade boys knocked while I was melting old wax down; so they made candles too).

potted plants and watering new green,

vases full of color in every room,

lots of dates at the town bakery, dinners and baking and walks...

i am enjoying this season.

"[The wren] delivers such a cantering praise-

for what?

For the early morning, the taste of the spider,

for his small cup of life

that he drinks from every day, knowing it will refill.

All things are inventions of holiness...

window note by Avery across the street, age 7.

left in our shared laundry room by my next door neighbor.

a 10-year-old doing homework at my kitchen table

(requested no face in the picture. note the socks.)

Fawvers made new counters. It's way exciting. I "helped" (ate their food while they worked).

...every morning, there's my own cup of gladness."

-Mary Oliver

.beauty and joy in the bleak midwinter.

our town's 100+ year old library.

beautiful yarn for a new project.

crocuses in the kitchen.

quiet.

friends.

new favorite books + new favorite music.

dance parties over skype.

valentines.

toddlers crawling between legs and falling asleep on shoulders.

looking through my phone to find out that letting a kindergartner use the camera that morning

had produced a fabulous amazing series of self-portraits and my new favorite photo of his sister and me

(he put them all in b&w himself!).

teenagers whose nail polish match their bible covers.

ceramic glaze.

the copper bowls and teakettle i got for christmas glow so beautifully in afternoon light they make my whole kitchen feel warmer.

a quick trip to the thrift store revealed vintage dresses clearly sewed by hand and with such care attention to detail that it actually made me choke up...

the surprising loveliness, and wondering the stories behind them.

the skies, trees and fields of this place feed my soul. daily.

 

being reminded of truth at my kitchen sink, on a chalkboard, and by my community.