janintx at RevGalBlogPals offers this week’s Friday Five:
As we prepare in our churches and homes for Christmas to arrive, we are moving through Advent. It is a time of waiting, expectation and preparation. However, being human, it is also a season of stress and worry.
Image may be NSFW.
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For this Friday Five, share how you are in this transition of Advent to Christmas. As the Savage Chickens cartoon shows us, we alternate between “cinnamon and panic”! Write about 5 aspects of cinnamon or panic you are experiencing or whatever is in between; maybe mention how you are reminded to stay in the present holy moment.
1. Our house smells like cinnamon, not from baking but from candles, which are everywhere. Kathy requested candles as part of our Christmas decorating this year. The house looks great. We haven’t decorated the last couple years, a combination of the long hours she works during the holidays (retail) and my trauma from the time we decorated on Christmas Day and then didn’t pack the stuff away until July. It was nice to take a break. It’s good to pull stuff out again, we downsized a bit.
2. Panic is three sermons in five days. Though I see many of my colleagues on Facebook talking about funerals, which have not hit me/the congregations this season, thanks be to God.
3. I feel a little haunted by the memory of last winter’s bout with depression, which was worse than usual. I have felt the darkness descending as the days shorten and get grayer, so I’m prioritizing time at the Y. This has effects on several levels: the physical, obviously; it boosts me emotionally, serotonin and all that; I also consider it, at least part of the time, prayer. Sometimes I don’t make it to a class but I spend time in the deep end of the pool, moving and not thinking. I choose a word and do a version of contemplative prayer, just listening.
4. After the Y today, I took Max shopping to Art Cats Gallery. I picked up a few small gifts for friends, and I admit it, a pair of “peace” earrings for me.
5. max is the best – our exchange student leaned over and typed that. He mostly is. Having him as part of our family is a wonderful experience. I’m at a point in my life where not much is new, anymore. Living with someone who is constantly doing new things is really neat to see and share.
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Max and friends on their way to the Christmas Dance. He’s the tall guy in the middle.
