’Tis the first week of Advent, friends!
As I shared in my first Advent post two years ago, Advent is the four-week period leading up to Christmas. It is meant to be a time to quiet one’s soul in preparation for the joy of Christmas. I have found that, especially in the midst of the holiday rush, meditating intentionally upon the wonder of all this season means has made my Christmas celebrations more meaningful.
I enjoy Christmas more when I take time – even a few minutes each day – to stop and be quiet during Advent.
If you are a veteran of this blog, you know that I like to contemplate things through poetry. (Want to read last year’s Advent poems? Start here!) As we approached this week, I realized I had already written my first Advent poem – though I didn’t realize that’s what I was writing at the time.
See, I’ve been thinking about Fear quite a bit lately.
Fear is an old enemy of mine (see this old post for thoughts on my intermittent battle with anxiety), but that long-standing war was not the only reason for my musings. I have begun work on the sequel to the novel I just finished; as the first book takes place in the Land of Loss, this new book occurs in the Land of Fear.
So, of course, I had to write a sonnet series on Fear.
Y’know, for research.
(I sent the first of those Fear sonnets out as part of an email to my email list this week. If you’re not on that list and want to get exclusive info on the world of R. A. Nelson, join here!)
When I wrote the poem included below, I thought I was writing an extra sonnet for the Fear series – but, upon reflection, I realized it wasn’t really about Fear.
It was about Hope.
That’s also the theme of the first week of Advent.
May reading – or listening – to these words give you HOPE, friends.
Enjoy the video!
Advent 2019
Week 1 – HOPE
This time, it’s not the Fear that keeps me fluttering
No dreary haze of duties left undone
The flicker, now, is not my life-light sputtering
The buzz is not my time-wheel overrun
Why, then, cannot my spirit come to rest?
She chirps and trills as if to keep me waking
Lest, drowsy, I should miss some coming guest
Confuse their knock with dreams of quick day-breaking
Shake – quickly, spirit! – shake me from my dreaming
And keep me poised in this divine disquiet
’Twixt yesterday’s sufficiency, well-seeming
And tomorrow,’s “You may miss – what then? MISS. TRY IT.”
Transforming Fear’s old guises from within
Ah, Hope: familiar friend! Once more, you win
Amen!
Love the lien and the YouTube connection!!!
Yes! Spirit shake me from my dreamland and feelings of overwhelm!