Simply waiting

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Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent for me is a quiet, waiting season. I think it's my very favorite season of the liturgical year, for its beauty and peace, and anticipation. And the music, too. The previous church we attended, though somewhat theologically wayward, did introduce me to the idea of using blue for Advent instead of purple. Little do many of us Catholics know that there's a choice; churches can decorate in either blue or purple. Not for Lent, just Advent.

I suppose most churches use purple because it's easier- purple for two seasons of the year saves money and materials. I prefer the blue, not just because it's my personal favorite, but because I agree with the parish's art and environment minister- it best represents the "night." Night itself is a good symbol of the quiet waiting for the baby Jesus, the imagery of his parents traveling to Bethlehem, and the star rising above his birthplace. 

That church used a beautiful deep blue, somewhere between royal and indigo. Purple, used in the season of Lent, is of course a royal color, but the season is very solemn and penitential. There's some of that feeling to Advent as well, but it's more a joyous solemnity, a sweet anticipation. Blue suits that feeling for me. I purchased a miniature advent wreath at our cathedral today. Of course, the candles in it are purple, not blue, but I've placed the little metal wreath on top of a blue plate that I painted several years ago. I think it looks just right. I don't even think I'll add any flora to it this year. 

This year I'm desperate to keep things simple. Last year things were simple out of financial necessity. This year, it' s a challenge because we're better off and it's tempting to buy more and do more. I don't want to lose that blessed gratitude and simplicity for anything. God is near to the poor, and though we aren't exactly rich, I don't want us to have any barriers to Him through our new prosperity.

We've spent more on "unnecessities" lately just because we can, or because of convenience (laziness, really). I hope to stop that and focus on what's in my heart and what is in the heart of God. Our new wreath is metalwork, and it features the words "Hope, Peace, Joy, Love." That's the focus of Advent. 

We had a lovely time at my brother-in-law's house two days ago for Thanksgiving but I was chagrined to see their Christmas tree already up. For Heaven's sake, Advent hasn't even begun.  I expected as much of the stores, but not our family. I only decorated marginally for fall, and that unraveled quickly because we moved in mid-October. But I don't want to jump right to Christmas- there is a waiting time, and I feel led to experience it. In a small way, this instant leap makes me sad... At dinner last night, the waitress brought us our eggnog gelato, and it hit me as I took my first bite- when I was a child, eggnog was considered very special, and we didn't partake of it until Christmas Day, or the last week of Advent at the earliest. I think it's a small example of how far we haven't come in modern times. There's no more patience for special things to come. We have to have it all, and have to have it now. 

I really want to celebrate the "Advent-ness" of Advent, and not just leave it in the church building. I want the feeling in our home to help us stay mindful. I don't have an Advent calendar, I didn't see one in the gift shop today, but hopefully I can find one somewhere. Most of all though, I hope to spend time in prayer and meditation, and carry that spirit with me wherever I am. I want to inspire my husband too, so that he will release his stress into the hands of Jesus, and be filled with peace and joy. Amen.

Really, America?

So, while this is happening around the globe to thousands of families,

This is what grown Americans are up to...

Humans First

We are humans first, citizens second.

Do you really think the IS extremists are going to sit back and allow the rest of the world to help their victims? No! They're going to prevent their victims from having a safe place to turn. Do you really think the refugees are all extremists? If they were, why would they be fleeing? Do you think the terrorists wouldn't think to infiltrate the hordes of actual refugees and cause problems in the countries of refuge? Of course the extremists would want borders closed, so the victims have nowhere to turn. Are we really going to fall for that and turn our backs on thousands of real war refugees because we're afraid some of them might be terrorists? Where is our compassion and courage?

I first came to the "humans first, citizens second" understanding in my reading of No One is Illegal by Justin Akers Chacon, the subject of which concerns Latino immigrants to the United States and the U.S. involvement in their reasons for leaving Latin America. I already felt that way, but I couldn't articulate it. Now, with a cold war on Facebook between the pro-refugee and anti-refugee/anti-Islam factions, I feel it's time to bring it up again.

I've also seen Facebook posts which highlight the hypocrisy of certain conservatives who were quite recently voting against funding various public welfare systems, benefactors of which include homeless veterans. Those same voters are now using the plight of American homeless veterans as reason to bar refugees from the United States. I was annoyed by the "help homeless veterans before 'Syrian rebels'" posts, but when I read about this turnaround in feeling, I became disgusted. Even before I learned of this, I questioned within myself, "Why not help both?" Why does it have to be "either/or?"

It's the same reasoning I used in a discussion with my sister about emergency medical care for immigrants, documented or otherwise. She complained that "illegal aliens" were getting medical care when there are U.S. citizens who don't. Right. The complaint should be not against the human beings who need medical care, but against a government which isn't providing health care to its own people. Why punish the immigrant? It's not their fault the government has chosen one person over another. Health care is a human need and right, both people should be served. 

Why take from one to give to the other? If this is the greatest/richest/best/whateverest country in the world, surely we have the resources to help all our own people and those who come to us for aid. What about all those sickeningly rich people with the ten cars and five houses, whose children and children's children will never have to work in their lives? Who have huge tax cuts? Do we find that fair? They are U.S. citizens, yet their lives are disproportionately easier than those of the majority of U.S. citizens. All of that, apparently, is acceptable, even legal.

Why are the poorest of the poor rejected by "good patriotic citizens," and the richest of the rich, with so much more than they need, are given a free pass? What about the uncountable government dollars spent on the military? What about the corporations, bigger than life and richer than the government? What about the huge sums paid to football players and other athletes, and singers and actors, for our mere entertainment? That's ok, because this is America.

Is someone more worthy of care and assistance because they were born in one country versus another? Because that's what I'm hearing from those who protest aiding the Syrian refugees.

Friends: borders and countries, citizenship and nationality are all human constructions. All arbitrary, and all abstract. When it comes down to it, we all poop. We all pee. We all bleed and we all cry. We all are vulnerable to terrorism, and we all deserve help when we are terrorized. We are all human, before we are anything else. Someone has to sign a birth certificate saying we are this nationality or that race, it doesn't come on a bar code on our behinds. The only things we are born with are our souls, our gender, and our humanity. And we all come into this world equally defenseless.

Seamstresses: you are not a sewer.

Sewer:
an ​artificial ​passage or ​pipe, usually ​underground, that ​carries ​waste and used ​water from ​sinks and ​toilets away from ​buildings to a ​place where they can be ​safely ​gotten ​ridof:The ​county is putting in new sewers.

(Definition of sewer from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

This is not you.

I've seen also "sewist," which I find to be an ugly term, but at least it avoids calling oneself a pipeline for excrement. My mother once called my father a "fine seamster" when he mended a jacket. "Seamster" makes more sense as the counterpart of "seamstress." Merriam-Webster seems to agree, though my blog platform here is underlining it in red, telling me to knock it off with the funny words. As I type, I see the red squiggly line underneath "sewist" as well. So you're either a seamstress, or a man who sews. I guess you can call yourself a "seamster" as long as you carry a copy of Merriam-Webster around with you. But neither of you, please to God, is a sewer.

Slowing Down

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Take time to stop and smell the roses. Or the lavender. Or the pizza. Wherever you are, slow down and give thanks for the beauty of God's creation. Really experience it. This is what I'm telling myself this weekend. It's been a busy, noisy time for me over the last several weeks. Most of the time, the noise is only in my head; my flurry of thoughts and frantic notations of endless minutiae. I believe that God created us to walk the earth at a reasonable, steady pace. The world's hurried and inconsistent pace is, unfortunately, the speed I've been taking these days. Part of it of course is how unsettled I feel. Accordingly, how much I crave feeling settled has determined my mad rush to set things aright. What happened to my focus on gentleness, hmm? 

Patience is a virtue I thought I'd mastered. Clearly I hadn't. In the last month, I've started a new and vastly unfamiliar job, moved from one little home into another, and started driving again for the first time in the last six years. The last two will require very, very large monthly payments, the likes of which I've never paid before, and just looking at the numbers is a shock for me. Grateful as I am that my new and vastly unfamiliar job can pay for these things, I'm in awe of the responsibility. And of course, I'm still struggling to reconcile my beliefs with the requirements of my job, and the fact that I'm working outside the home at all. I'm painfully aware that we wouldn't need the new car if I didn't have the job, and so this payment isn't that necessary; however, I can't get to the job without it and without the job, we'd have no home. My husband's job doesn't yet cover all our needs, though I believe in time it will. 

In any event, all this has been swirling about in my little brain and causing all kinds of distress within me. Yes, I know, I let it. When I stop rushing madly, like today, I can marvel at the beauty of the red and gold leaves of autumn trees, and appreciate the abundance of lavender growing all over my town, and have blessed conversations with strangers whom God puts in my path. Then I am poised to reflect on Him and His goodness. And then it hits me- all this "stuff" is His to handle. I'm just the hands and feet walking the earth for Him. The aforementioned strangers were so wise and filled with God's Spirit, that I wonder if they weren't angels. I'm mostly kidding. You never know.

A dear friend called me today too, and it was so good to speak with her. Another old, old friend sent me a text as well, and I hadn't heard from either dear lady in such a while. Why am I so awful about keeping in touch with people? It's a wonder my friends don't throw up their hands and desert me. I jest, but really, I am quite terrible. Oh, I can feel it coming on... the temptation to pile on more "notes to self" about what to improve and remember, such as "keep in closer contact with friends X, Y and Z."  Any time we sit and reflect in this way, we take that risk, I suppose. The reason so many of us are in this state of distress, especially coming upon the holiday season, is because we've got too many mental memos labeled URGENT. Whatever shall we do?

Only one thing is needed: 

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” 
-Luke 10: 41-42