The 7 Days Before Christmas... Day 1

Today was a pretty stressful day with glimmers of hope. I can't help but reflect on the sate Mary and Joseph were in on the week before Christmas. The fear, concerns, worries and glimmers of peace and joy melted into the hope of new life and Christ's birth.

I feel like last Christmas was not this dramatic but the year before I reflect on our homeless situation. First Christmas as a married couple with a baby on the way and - homeless not knowing where we would be or where we would go. It was a difficult time.

This year, it is much the same as that year... with child and at a breaking point. Our Theatre has been doing amazing (for a start up theatre). The last weekends and those shows to come are close to 50 - 75 tickets pre-sold EACH performance! That's pretty darn great, and yet... we can't seem to get ahead... why? I know its all in the growing pains of a new business but this feels a bit more like that torture by stretching they used to do in the olden days. That torture appears to still be in practice in our home.

And yet, with all that... there is joy!

How did Mary carry a child at 9 months and ride a donkey for hours? How did Joseph deal with the uncertainty? Why does God allow pain and suffering especially when great hope is coming?!

Advent is a time of waiting... and its so clear God is asking us to wait and trust and HOPE in what is to come even when everything seems so hope-less. I am called to embrace the un-known and trust as Mary did.

So tonight, I packed up Augustine and headed to mass. Nothing gets me like an evening mass in Advent. Its like there is glimmer in the air, in the church on the streets! Yes, Augustine was a very good boy and I could focus on mass except at the end when he started singing loudly (after communion when everything is SO quiet) "Dada da da .... Tata taaaa ..." Darling. But it was so loud that I couldn't help but try to stifle giggles at his sweet innocent voice. I didn't even have the heart to shush him. He was singing in God's house and it was lovely! If the people don't sing God's babies will sing out! After enjoying Christmas lights on our way home listening to - none other than - Lion King we feasted on this rather Christmassy looking soup. It's called "Cowboy Stew" or "Poor Man's Stew" because it is so cheap to make but tonight its Advent Soup and it was warm and delicious and healthy!

Peace to you all as you wait for the great hope!