CPE- Christmas Break- Midwest Blizzard-Advent

Thursday I had my first CPE interview in Minnesota and the weather forecast for Madison WI was 4-18 inches of snowfall on Thursday.  Wednesday I diligently watched the weather radar and after talking to Scott and a friend in MN, decided to head north on Wednesday night so as to avoid the potential blizzard conditions.  Lo and behold, MN also got slammed with tremendous winds and a mere 5-9 inches of snow.  The interview went well, and when I called Scott to let him know I was going to head home, he highly recommended I stay in MN another night.  His 4WD got stuck in our road as he was coming home, and the city is not making any plans or promises that the side roads would be plowed on Friday.  So I spent another night in MN- waiting.

Waiting occurs everyday in our lives.  I have spent the better part of Christmas break waiting anxiously for my grades.  When I got them, I did an all out ALLELUIA, PRAISE GOD! Because I actually truly did survive my first semester of seminary!

Waiting for CPE interview decision.  Will I get the place I really want? 

Advent.  It is still advent, even though my family members just left our house and even though we visited dad at Sylvan Crossings for our annual Christmas celebration, I still wait to celebrate Christmas and celebrate the birth of our Lord.  Jesus, fully divine, yet born a human. 

Four Candles by Johnathan Rundman

we celebrate a new year
a few weeks before the calendar
we shovel off the sidewalks
unlock all the doors
we're gonna light four candles

we get to hang blue paraments
keep those flower vases filled
put up the banner with the trumpets
we serve on the altar guild
we're gonna light four candles

the wait is nearly over

Life Continues. Can we now get back to Advent?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled life...Original Painting by R. Pitts

It is interesting how humanity tends to throw all of their energy and faith into a civilization long removed from this side of eternity or a weathered elder who remains in blessed (and infamous) memory, that they can neither touch nor see but scoff at a people who celebrate the Creator who breathed ruach into our very beings who we can not see but reverberates throughout all, walking and struggling with us.

Advent is one of my favorite times of the year; "Unexpected and Mysterious" repeatedly loops in the background of my days as "O Come O Come Emmanuel". Each morning even as the sky flutters closer in brilliant hues of blue, center stage and the earthen goddesses pull fragile shawls of crystal even closer, my vision still reveres in awe. Even as snowstorms race across the horizons, I await this with great joy each and every year.

This Advent season has dawned upon us and yet my spirit was irritated. Another Friday has come upon us, but thanks to all this fatality freak out that has poison a multitude of people  our senses have been jarred with all of this end of the world language.

It's Friday. We're still here. Enough already.

Instead of lamenting that this is the end of the world, perhaps we should greet the horizon that slowly curls into our existence with new understanding. "As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience." This should be a new beginning for all of us; for a small town in Newton, Connecticut the world did indeed end an entire week ago. We should strive and struggle as this year bows from the stage and one awaits in the wings, that as people of Faith, that as children of the Creator we love our neighbor and the stranger just as we love ourselves. Let this be a end to pain, suffering, negativity and a beginning to who God has called us to be.

Besides, the world couldn't end today. I'm preaching on Epiphany. Woot!

Lape Bondye, God's Peace. 

First Snowfall- Last Paper- Advent with Sparklers!

Back Yard at home in Madison

As the semester draws to a close, I am overcome with various emotions. Sadness as I left campus this morning with my husband- leaving behind new friends who I won't see for 2 months. I'm amazed at how our intense study groups built camaraderie and close relationships among such a diverse group of people. Of course I am thrilled that I actually completed my first semester of seminary. I am overjoyed with the sense of accomplishment, and also the fact that as I continue this journey to ordained ministry, I continue to feel God's hand guide me along the way.

 Our first snowfall seemed to hit just as we hit the Wisconsin border this morning, and I am happy to say that I am now home, relaxing in front of a fire catching up with Scott, my husband, and simply watching the flurries fall. How ironic to get the first snowfall the day I arrive home!

Photo by Tina H.

Friday night was a great night with my roommates and other middlers as we celebrated Stephanie's, one of my roommates, birthday and sang Christmas Carols. This was a first for me, singing Christmas carols, but it certainly put me into the advent mood, especially as we held sparklers while singing Silent Night!

Now for a week of Christmas baking, preparing the home for Christmas, and catching up on 'fun' reading!