Advent: Day Two
We had a beautiful blue sky this morning, and the sunshine is what I noticed most as I bundled the kids outdoors after breakfast. Before I moved to England, I knew the days would be short in the winter, but I didn’t realize how low the sun would stay in the sky. Even at eleven, our shadows were long on the ground.
The woods are an amazing balm, though. My children bickered most of the way there, but once we passed the kissing gate, they were off, the best of friends, comrades, conspirators, and I had my opportunity for repose that I missed yesterday.
In some ways, dragging my kids off to the woods this morning felt like a foolish thing to do. We had to get home to take a delivery of groceries, my to-do list is somehow a mile long (and even now, as I type this at bedtime, there are things left unfinished that will have to wait until tomorrow). But the repose and stillness too often gets shunted aside, a few minutes in the early morning while the kettle boils that quickly melt into the activity of the day. If Advent is a time of simplicity, of waiting, of expectation, then some amount of foolishness may be required.
What I’m Reading
- Galatians 5 – this is for a group Bible Study
- Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity by Richard Hooker. This is for a class I’m taking on natural law and Scripture. Because I’m a little ridiculous, I didn’t get the version in modernized English. I follow it better when I read it aloud, which I did in the woods today.
- The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle. This is the third Advent that we’ve used this to guide our family devotions. It’s simple and lovely.
- Secret Water by Arthur Ransome. The Swallows and Amazons book that I’m currently reading aloud to the kids. We will switch to Christmas books soon.