flood

A tough advent word today, "flood," a warning to be on our guard to not get distracted and caught up with the minutia of life lest we miss something really important.

Unfortunately, the holiday season is exactly when I am most prone to get caught up in the minutia of life and become so harried and frazzled that I completely miss the point. Some people get a charge out of "creating the magic" but the sense that I will never be able to measure up to such a weighty obligation has the exact opposite effect on me, especially because it is so far from my normal mode of operation (in which I am happy just to have clean socks for the day). In my distress, I usually manage to sweep my nearest and dearest down along with me.

This is not the point of the season. It should never be the point of the season. And I really need to start focusing on this, along with the fact that it is not up to me to create the magic. My only job, really, is to be still enough to observe and appreciate what already exists.

I am committed this season, if anyone asks me if I am "ready for the holidays" to answer with a cheerful "nope." That question has only one meaning: have you finished all your shopping yet? And I am determined to bear in mind that the season should be one of mindful watchfulness, and I intend to keep working on it a day at a time. As soon as I start seeing it instead as a never-ending series of tasks to be crossed off a list, I am sunk, and the spirit of the season right along with me.

I am taking this season one day at a time. I am determined not to be caught up in the flood.