NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

Christmas is over for another year. If not the season, at least the day has come and gone. I trust it brought memories with it that will become part of the Christmas story in your house. My memory will be staying up until after midnight with my adult grandchildren finishing a jigsaw puzzle we had started when they were home for Thanksgiving. ‘Why?’ you ask? So we can start a new 1000 piece one that was received as a Christmas gift yesterday .... of a Christmas scene!  Today is called Boxing Day. Whatever the origin of the name, whether it came from the upper classes giving boxes of food to their tenants or the modern day practice of people boxing up Christmas gifts to return them to the shops, it is now a widely accepted as the name for  today.  As I look around our apartment this morning it is obvious that I will be spending a good chunk of the day finding places for things that weren’t here just 24 hours ago, as well as putting away dishes etc that made an appear...

It is no coincidence that we mark the birth of the baby who is said to bring light to the world just days after the winter solstice, when the hours of daylight are the least and the darkness seems to overwhelm us. Christianity came into being in the northern hemisphere after all. Our Christmas celebrations centre on joy, laughter, good times, lots of food, and good fellowship. Our expectations are high and are just as surely doomed to be dashed.   Last year I came across the following Christmas Carol by Mary Chapin Carpenter. The words are especially poignant as she addresses both sides of the Christmas celebrations. There will be years when darkness seems to overwhelm our lives whatever the reason. It may be sickness, loss of a job or  a loved one, loneliness, estrangement from friends or family. Whatever the reason, it puts us on the outside of the celebration, just wanting to be left alone, in the dark. She brings us all into the circle not requiring us to change, ...

“Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the spending joy   Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy” I was thinking this week of that well-loved carol, “Joy to the World” and in particular the refrain at the end of the verse 2 where nature is called upon to  ‘repeat the sounding joy’. I think that joy is missing in a large part from my Christmas preparations. As Christas Day draws ever nearer, the list of things that ‘need’ to be done grows longer instead of shorter. Tempers are short as we try to fit too many things into too short a time, worried that we won’t get it all done. The Christmas cards might not be delivered by the post office in a timely manner, especially with the rotating postal strikes that have been ongoing all fall! Did I choose the right Christmas gift for everyone? Did I spend too much on that gift … or maybe not enough? Will everything be perfect on Christmas Day? Then I have the memory of my childhood when my mother would wash the kitchen floor on Chris...

Each year I have had a theme in mind for my blogs during Advent season, sometimes even having them written in advance.. This year however the well seems to have run dry. Advent is that season of the church calendar when we are called upon to prepare ourselves for the Christmas celebration that speaks of the entry of Jesus into history, and into our lives. As I sit here at the computer I find myself thinking of what I am doing this year, this week in particular, that will prepare me this participate fully in the Christmas event.  How can I become more cognizant, more immersed, in what is called commercially, ‘the reason for the season’ ? This is what I hope to explore over the next few weeks and I would invite you to join me in that exploration. As the Advent begins I find myself getting out the Christmas decorations, thinking about writing the annual family Christmas letter, setting up playlists of Christmas music on my phone, filling Christmas festivities on my cale...