Sailing into the Season

"The Pacific Northwest-Anacortes, WA"

(Small watercolor study)

The calendar declares today December 1st.  The Christmas season is here....ready or not.  Most of us would prefer the "ready" part.  This all implies that there is a need to prepare. The question follows...prepare for what?  Your answer reveals what your focus will be.  For some, it may be hitting all the malls and stores for good shopping deals, getting the long list of names on the Christmas list crossed off.  That makes me tired already.  For others, it may be attending the numerous concerts and parades.  For still others, it entails getting out the family recipes for great-grandmother's plum pudding or other generational dishes.  For some, it is selecting the Christmas tree, putting up all the decorations and hanging the lights.   

Those activities can all be enjoyed if attended to at a good pace and with time management. But I encourage you to get to the heart of "the what" it is for which you are getting "ready".  The bottom-line reason for this season and all its accompanying activities is to celebrate the first Advent of Christ 2,000 plus years ago in Bethlehem.   Many of us know that and would say that is our focus.  The difficulty comes in maintaining that as the foremost purpose of the season.  So much activity and lists of things to get done can rob us of the peace and joy that this historic event is meant to bring.  So I encourage you to be deliberate in your focus and intentional in preparing for your observance of Christmas.  One way is to celebrate Advent with daily readings in Scripture.  Books are available that provide readings and meditations. Another way is to immerse yourself in the rich, beautiful Christmas music.  One such source I enjoy is the classical King FM Christmas Channel from Seattle streaming online.  This channel plays only the beautiful and best of the Season's music, not the tinny jingles that have nothing to do with Christ's birth.  

Before the paling of the stars,

Before the winter morn,

Before the earliest cock-crow

Jesus Christ was born:

Born in a stable,

Cradled in a manger,

In the world His hands had made 

Born a stranger.

---Christina Rossetti

Here's a favorite Christmas carol of mine that brings a quiet hush to one in the midst of all the going's-on of this wonderful season:  

Live bravely and beautifully!