Pause in Advent 1: Run with the Fox

Date: 03 December 2012 09:33:03

WARNING: This is a bit of a long and rambling post.

Together with a few other bloggers, I am joining in with Floss's "A Pause In Advent" - an opportunity to pause in the rush up to Christmas, and to blog about whatever is personally important in this season. If you'd like to read other blog posts "in the series", then go over to Floss, at Troc, Broc et Recup' to find the links. Due to my plans for Christmas, I won't be able to join in all of the weeks. We are spending Christmas at MiL's in Kent, and we were not going to be able to get to see my Mum at all, due to time restraints, and travelling (It's quite some distance from Kent to Liverpool - and back again!) However, Mum's had some physical problems recently, and when I last spoke to her, seemed quite down -which is not like her at all! - so I'm taking time out from my busy schedule (note the heavy sarcasm there!) to fly to Liverpool a week earlier. I'll spend the week with mum, and then take the coach and train to Canterbury (via Milton Keynes, giving me a chance to catch up with some old friends). Mum is not very computer-savvy, and so I won't be posting from there. I may have a chance to sneak in a final post from MiL's on the fourth Sunday of Advent though. I don't really have to "pause" to be honest: I haven't got myself in the holiday spirit (whatever that may be!), and I'm not rushing round doing anything! I've bought most of my presents, I'm not sending many cards, and we're not decorating the house. Because we're not going to be here, and the cats are completely bonkers (especially Bib) about new things, I'm not going to decorate the house. If we did, I fear we would return to baubles rolling around everywhere, swags completely destroyed, and stars mangled, not to mention, the creche shattered on the floor and Baby Jesus nowhere to be seen. So the "Christmas Spirit" is not very evident.

But what always helps me to smile about Christmas is the music. The favourite carols, for example. When I was teaching, I would be heartily sick of carols by mid-December, as we'd been practising them for weeks on end; I would sigh heavily when the first notes of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.." struck up. But when I paused and read the words properly, - oh boy! They really hit home. That is one of my favourite carols now: I will belt it out at top volume, voice cracking on the high notes, often with tears in my eyes (yes, I do cry easily). Mr D spent a good few hours a couple of years back, compiling a CD with over 50 Winter/Christmas themed songs on. This always makes me smile, as my very favourite secular songs are on that. And it is actually some of these that I have chosen to use as inspiration for my Pauses this year

I don't know if they will be spiritually thought provoking. We will see. I have been intrigued by PomPom and her SMASH journalling. This is the recent craze in the US, which I think developed out of Scrapbooking. But instead of concentrating on the beautifully positioned, agonised-over last sequin which creates a well considered, beautiful page, SMASH journalling is about rapid creating, "smashing" your mementoes into a journal, not taking so much consideration, but creating a page that is beautiful for its immediacy, for its impact, for its "now-ness". On this post of PomPom's you can see how she is SMASHing. I have a beautiful Travel Journal, which was given to us one Christmas, which we never used for its original purpose. So I took time to cover the printed pages with pretty paper, and I have started to use it as a mix between an art journal, a prayer journal and a SMASH journal. I can't bring myself to "smash" stuff into it - I have to make it look good. I can't quite let go and not worry about what it looks like. But I'm going to use the Pause in Advent to journal some of my favourite secular Christmas songs, and to think about why they mean so much, or how they touch my heart.

Now the season, Now the question Time to breathe a moment's grace For the Hunter and the Hunted Taking time to break the pace

One such song is "Run with the Fox" by Chris Squire & Alan White from the band "Yes". Here is a link to a You Tube video of the song - if you don't know it, do listen: I think it's lovely.

When I hear it, it always makes me smile: it is such a hopeful song. The lyrics are in full here.And here is my Journal page:

Are you hopeful? Are you haunted by the ghost of Christmas past? Advent has always been a hopeful time. I am lucky that I have not had tragedy, as such, in my life. Of course, I have lost people I love, but I have never had to face utter despair that others have. At this time of year, I am always able to keep a kernel of hope in my heart; however far from God I have been, however much I have wanted to shake Him out of my life, I can't, because there is that seed of hope, of love, that rests deep within my spirit. For those who are haunted by past tragedies, or by present ones, I pray for the comforting and the springing green shoots of love. Leave your sadness by the river, giving love and given time. We all need to learn to leave our sadness behind us - whatever that grief is for. Grief for the loss of loved ones...for the person we are, the person we fail to be...memories of things we have said and can't now unsay...of actions done..ofmissed opportunities and regrets ... God has given us time: time enough to do all that He wants us to do. But we need to use that time wisely - giving love, being who we are, becoming what we should be, making amends... Advent is a time to prepare for God's coming, both to earth and to our hearts. Things can change; things will change. We can face the future undaunted, with God on our side and at our side... Let us live to tell a story, here on Earth and out in Space Forward on the road to glory... Let us live to tell God's story, perhaps. To move forward on the road to glory, we are together as pilgrims Run with the Fox