I have spent the last several days reading and living with the submissions of our community for the soon-to-be-published Advent devotional on the theme 'Welcoming the Wild One'. To read the spiritual reflections of others, to glimpse the prayers and poems that shape them, always makes me know I am standing on holy ground. I also know how powerful our community finds this resource for their own lives during this season of darkness and waiting. Working with my colleagues to put this booklet together is always life-giving to me, as life-giving as I know the words of our fellow path-walkers are to all of us.
This year's theme has been challenging for some. Wildness. What does it mean to welcome wildness into our lives? What is wildness anyway? Is it simply the opposite of 'tame'? Is it something to be feared rather than embraced? Many questions get played out in the words people offered, some finding their way to answers, while others are left hanging, hopefully, to be lived into during the slow march up to Christmas. It is an exciting prospect, an hopeful journey.
As I look outside my window right now, we are experiencing some unusual November sunshine much as we have during other days of this usually grayest month. While the trees may shine back their dullest of earth tones and the ground is covered with grass that is fading fast, the landscape might be described as bland. Yet if you are aware of the movement of birds and squirrels, of the rabbits who inhabit backyards and fields, you can see the wildness of those who are preparing for a long winter. As they scurry about, I am watching them trying to get in touch with my own wildness. As the children play in our neighborhood, squeezing the last bit of life out of each lingering fall day, I try to soak up their wild abandon for life. These are my teachers, my way into discovering what wildness needs to be embraced in my life.
Soon the Thanksgiving turkey will be a memory except for how it has affected our waistlines.The winter will descend with winds and snow and unexpected turns of temperature. We will walk once again into December and the story of Christmas. A story filled with surprising angels, stupefied shepherds, determined wise ones, two people who didn't sign up for the job they were given and the wildness of a baby born among animals.
Stay tuned….it's a pretty wild story.