Looking back over the years I seem to have had a varied response to advent. Some years I cannot wait, am super prepared and have picked out what reflections I shall enjoy in the season. Some years I have had to prepare sessions for others on advent and so I’ve got into the zone earlier, and some years I rush into the last few days of November frantically looking around to see where my advent love has hidden. 

This year is one of those years. I cried on Sunday morning when a friend texted saying ‘happy first Sunday of advent’. I felt jealous of her joy and yesterday I dug around into that jealousy and found grief over not being part of a Church community to travel this season with, over not having physical people and places to go to be reminded of the story which holds me to this earth. And at the bottom of that grief I found longing for this story, this one which breaks my heart with wonder every time I look at it again. 

This story of a God becoming human, an initiative taking love which came to hang out with us, feel our pain, be amongst us, not be separate from us, bringing the mysterious divine into earthy flesh and blood. To know what it is to walk around on this earth, to feel loneliness, grief, joy, friendship, wonder, tiredness and more. 

This story is why I can keep going, this story is what roots me, grounds me and wraps itself around the core of my soul. As it does so it reminds me of who I am, what I am doing here and breathes warmth into the cold. And that’s why I love advent. And that’s why I blog and post and seek the wonder, the joy and the ground beneath my feet. 

This year I think I’m going to go with this theme of ground beneath my feet. Life, as usual, is a full on rollercoaster of grief, joy, pain, wonder, sorrow, anticipation, possibility, isolation, loneliness and sitting around fires with friends. It’s a lot and I can feel my body grow tired of the tension of holding myself on this rollercoaster, leaning into bends, holding solid when the epic downs come and the stress of anticipating the leaps and bounds. 

Each day I want to get off, to allow my body to breathe, to find my feet on the ground, to remember the story which gives me strength to get back on and to find the bottom line of the love which holds me to this earth. I find it most in the child born to usher in hope and life, in the man who sacrifices wealth, power and position to talk to the outsider, in the one who lived through death and resurrection so we could too. 

What I’ll probably be posting is a whole load of pictures of my feet and some muddy leaves. But. It will be the reminder that this ground is here, the bedrock is solid, I can get off the rollercoaster and breathe each day and that is possible because of this season. Hello to advent, hello to the word become flesh, hello to the physical grounding of faith and hello to a God who knows what it’s like down here.