by Kerry Williams
I’ve been thinking about the Advent Season a lot this year. I know it is often characterized as a time of waiting and anticipation. Years ago I even participated in one of our Advent services describing how the Spanish word “esperar” translates both “to wait” and “to hope,” which I think is beautiful and especially fitting. What I’m realizing this year is that I am in a mode of active waiting which is new and different for me. Personality tests often peg me as a “wait and see, slow to warm up” type in general, and during Advent that usually looks like taking in the preparations that others are making and appreciating their efforts while quietly checking off my list of what needs to be done without any fanfare. This year, through a series of calendar alignments, our family has acknowledged Hanukkah November 29-December 6, Sinterklaas on December 6, and are getting ready for Santa Lucia on December 13, all before celebrating Christmas. We’re not going overboard by any means, but by coming together to eat special food and decorate for the occasion we are actively marking the time during this period which has so much meaning for so many different people. It makes me want to know more about how traditions are kept around the globe, and I remember fondly the course that was offered at Pilgrim a long time ago, where we learned about other religions and were introduced to their stories and practices. I especially remember seeing the I Ching for the first time and being taught how to use it. It was a mind-altering experience for me, not because the book itself pointed to anything, but because it hit me that the human experience is one of making meaning. It kicked off a restructuring of my thoughts that maybe I wasn’t supposed to figure out the meaning of my life on earth but actually create it. I forget that important tidbit over and over again, but this Advent season has been a time when I’ve been able to hold that idea a little more naturally. So, as I wait to see what this particular season will bring, I am involved in small changes to set a path that will move me forward, not to a place that was destined, but in a way that feeds me and makes the world a little brighter as I go. Showing up to wait with others and making their experience lighter simply through the presence of another human being seems to be where I am finding the most meaning right now. I hope that you also are able to create meaning right now, and if that’s difficult, as it often is, then you stumble across the ones out there who will meet you where you are and lighten this time, actively waiting together with you.