“tell it as a story
about darkness
giving birth to
light, about
seemingly endless
waiting, and
about that which
lies at the end of
all our waiting
with each
telling, more
of the story
comes to light
darkness can
become the
tending place
in which our
longings for
healing, justice,
and peace grow
and come to
birth.”
~Jan L. Richardson

And so the winter days are unfolding. Here in Minnesota these days have been held under an even greater blanket of snow than usual and the weekend promises even more. Cold temperatures which seem more like February are already filling our bones and causing people to walk around in the shoulders-to-ear, guarded fashion, eyes straight ahead looking ever toward the goal of the next warm place.

For those of us who are trying to pay attention to the season of Advent, the cold and snow provide the perfect backdrop to the play in which we are actors. This landscape spells longing and longing is really one of the major feelings of Advent. Longing for what is unseen. Longing for what might be born in us. Longing to be awakened to the goodness and kindness the world often hides. Longing………so much longing.

If we allow the commercial world of Christmas sales to guide these days, we miss, I believe, such an important part of the process of this life’s journey. To come face-to-face with the longings in our lives is an important task, a task that should not be left to the realm of regret. And so an Advent practice of reflection on our longings can bring us to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a person of faith, any faith really, not just the one that captures these December days.

Someplace in the darkness of our inner life something lurks. Not something frightening or evil, but something for which we long sometimes even beyond our knowing. For some it is meaning, for others a sense of peace. For some it is being loved, for others it is a place and experience of being known. Being known for who we really are not just what we do or what we own. For others it is a sense of hope that all will be well, in their lives and the lives of those they love.

This longing is multiplied by the fact that we are beings held together through community, through national and international connections . We long for the understanding and cooperation that would put an end to war. We long for the recognition of greed that harms the innocent. We long for the honoring of our blessed Earth home.

What longings are pulling at your heartstrings? What tugs at your soul in a way that will not let you go? On these days, in the middle of this season of waiting and watching, may the One who travels ever near, hear your often silent voice and affirm your path.