Waiting
Waiting patiently in expectation is the
foundation of the spiritual life.
Simone Weil
And Mary pondered all these things in her
heart. Gospel of Luke
Let's walk down the stairs, in our robes,
all sleepy, you know, in the true spirit of
Christmas. Zach
"Why do you do this to your son, if he cannot hear the movie?"
Or, "If your son can't hear, what value is there?"
The Father smiles and says, "You are right. He cannot hear. But I wonder. In the movie we watched last weekend. What color were the walls in the house? How many windows where there in the main house? What color was the heroine's hair? And her eyes?"
"I guess the value depends upon what we are paying attention to."
We are in the season of Advent. Which means, literally, "to wait." Wait implies that we are paying attention, (one would assume), to something. Specific. It's just that modern life has rewired our expectations. Waiting is okay. However, whatever it is, we want it now. As if waiting is a test with unambiguous accurate answers.
Could it be, that (like the hearing-impaired boy), the value of waiting, depends upon what we are paying attention to?
Wait is most certainly a word we know. And loathe. And wish to eliminate. (I read that the average person will spend 5 years of his or her life waiting in line, 2 years playing telephone tag, and six months sitting at red lights. That is over 7 and half years of waiting, at best, doing nothing, or at worst experiencing great aggravation! The bottom line is that even in our fast-paced world, with postmodern conveniences, and instant gratification tools, we are all waiting for something. And it doesn't seem to help that we can text while we wait.)
Of course, we don't seem to mind waiting if there is a payoff. I heard a preacher tell me that God will double my blessing if I suffer (while I wait). She had us shout, "I may be suffering, but payday's coming." (Here's my take: That is one sadistic parent!)
I had my own aggravation this week. Waiting while shopping for Christmas gifts. (As a note: for all this war on Christmas, we never seem to connect the necessity of waiting with the season of Christmas. Just a thought.) My wife and I were hunting for a game that is, apparently, the rage. Translation? No store has it in stock. Yes, stores ran specials. But now, store shelves are empty. Christmas shoppers jostle (a kind word for brawl and curse) (while Elvis sings Blue Christmas over the public address system), and tempers flare. Good cheer has been watered down. I can see our minds race, for explanations, mentally writing the note that will sit under the tree promising delivery by mid-January. "Santa is backed up, you must understand, what with the price of gas and all." You parents know how that goes.
But good news! There is hope! We find one game, in a store, in a city north of here (you know, need your passport north of here). We drive to buy it.
Tell me again the reason for Advent season?
Sun visits us today, and I spend the afternoon with secateurs and a rake and a wheelbarrow. It's time to tidy up the garden. Garden cleanup means trimming, deadheading and removing spent stalks or canes or seed heads. It is the time when the garden readies itself for dormancy. For rest. Yes, it is the season for waiting.
And I wonder. What if the power is in the waiting itself? In other words, in the space waiting creates. What if, it's not about getting over the waiting, or having answers for the waiting. In other words, it is not about absence, but awareness. Truth is, we don't know what Mary learned as she pondered. What we do know is that she made space. To receive. To welcome. To invite.
There is an import, weight, value and substance in the very space that waiting allows.
What if the waiting of Advent is the story of a God who pitches his tent among us, even as we live in the midst of a culture grown weary from too much work, from too much speed, from to much fear and from too much war?
A waiting that provides a space for recollection.
For what we value.
For those things and people, for which we are grateful.
For the gift of simple grace.
I have piles of spent stalks and garden debris spread out around the garden. The garden beds are tidier and my muscles feel their AARP age. So I sit on the back deck, and listen to the birds and let the afternoon unfold. And in the quiet, I wait.
For gentle reminders to PAUSE---to rest---look below.
For almost daily updates, follow my blog --
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In the experiences of a simple/crazy life,
farming Canadian dirt, raising
half a dozen exuberant kids,
stringing sheets out on the line....
I'm praying to slow and see
the sacred in the chaos,
the Cross in the clothespin,
the flame in the bush.
Just a bit of
listening, laundry, liturgy...
life.
Ann Voskamp' Blog
aholyexperience.com
Advent Prayer
Watching the Sunrise During Dark, Mornings of Advent
Thank you. What a gift this morning from you as I watched the blazing sunrise through a cloudy winter sky. It is hard getting up these dark mornings, Lord, and yet you gift me with a sight that I miss at other times of year, when the weather is warmer and the sun rises before I get up. I stared out the window at the red and purple light, gloriously framed by the gold of the rising sun. "Be still, and know that I am God" was the only thing that came to me. I watched in silence, filled with a sense of your presence in my life.
I am filled with gratitude this day for such a treasure and could feel it and see it as a gift from you. Thank you for your love. Today, let me carry a sense of how much you love me to send me such a gift. Let that awareness of your love change the way I treat others today. Let me be more reverent in the irritations of the day. I ask your help to move through my errands and holiday preparations today with peace and a sense of your sunrise in my heart. Your glory fills my spirit and I want only to give thanks with my life this day.
Amen.
BE INSPIRED THIS WEEK
Two new Terry Videos --- SHINE
youtube.com/TerryHersheyMedia
Rest in the Garden. Photos from Terry's garden.
Now archived on Zenfolio. Check them out, and enjoy.
Terry's garden
Celtic Woman from the Helix Center in Dublin, Ireland performing A Christmas Celebration.
youtube.Celticwomen
This video shows you Elvis, when he was really "The King". Song: "Blue Christmas". Martina McBride was digitally dropped into this track in 2008. Best close-up of Elvis we've ever seen.
youtube.com
youtube.Elvis
FAVORITES from last week:
Watch Terry on 30 Good Minutes - The Power of Pause
New Video. Plus, Video interview. Plus, Audio download.
Terry.30GoodMinutes
Silent Night, Sarah McLachlan (Video from the Christmas Carol Service 2008 in Aix en Provence, France)
youtube.silentnight
So This Is Christmas, Sarah McLachlan
youtube.sarah
Piano healing Songs at Christmas - Ron Noecker
Christmas
Download a FREE song.
RESOURCES TO HELP US PAUSE
1. NEW Terry videos with pause
reminders
Find them on our site
terryhershey.com/video
Or, the new Terry
Hershey YouTube channel. Please pass
the word.
Find Terry at youtube.com/user/TerryHersheyMedia
2. NEW Pause DVD.
dvd-becoming-more
3. Terry's NEW
BLOG. . .do less, live more.
blog.terryhershey.com
4. Rest in the Garden. Photos from Terry's
garden.
Now
archived on Zenfolio.
terrydhershey.zenfolio
5. Power of Pause Book
52 Best Sabbath Moments
from the
past six years
THE POWER OF
PAUSE: BECOMING MORE BY DOING
LESS,
power-of-pause.htm
Any
questions call 800-524-5370.
A REMINDER:
1. Recommend The Power of Pause to a friend
2. IF you have read The Power of Pause, I
would be honored. . .really. . .if you would
write a review on Amazon.com
amazon.com/Power-Pause
NEW Reviews on The Power of
Pause
Cynthia Stewart Patheos.com
patheos.com/Resources
Making a difference: Spend your time on
things that will grow By Margo Karsten
www.coloradoan.com
thinveil.net
Suzanne Beecher -- www.dearreader
If your Energy Fairy has been letting you
down, here's a great book I discovered, "The
Power of Pause: Becoming More by Doing Less"
by Terry Hershey. I love the book, it's on my
holiday list to buy for friends and I have 12
copies to give away to readers. To enter the
drawing, go to: tinyurl.com
SOJOURNERS GOD'S POLITICS BLOG, Cathleen
Falsani, 11/12
blog.sojo.net
Review from Spirituality and Practice
spiritualityandpractice
You can INVITE Terry to speak at your
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It's time to think about Religious Education
Congress, Anaheim, CA 2010 -- March 19-21,
2010
www.recongress.org/2010
Register
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