Second Sunday of Advent

Today starts the second week of advent. Advent is a time of vigilant waiting; I wait for something mysterious and unscheduled, with quiet excitement, and expectation. If I fall asleep to this awareness I risk missing the moment of joy, courage, or insight; the gift of grace that has the potential to feed me in ways I need.

Agenda Today:

1. Love Meditation

2. Read "It's a Meaningful Life"

3. Grace notes

4. Plan activities for unity and peace

5. Advent wreath ceremony

Autumn Art

Fall is a great time to make art. I've defined three areas for What I Want and What I Will Do to Get it:

I want to make things with my hands to give away - useful things, things that inspire and teach, gifts and craftivism.This will be my late week focus, Thursday and Friday, and I will plan and prepare on Thursday morning. 

 

I want to make artworks with a message - things that explore and support my Nature-Culture writing. This will be my weekend focus, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, with at least two hours in the studio, and I'll envision, explore, write, and set out supplies on Saturday morning.

 

And I want to make things with my grandsons - fun things, exploring basic skills, seasonal materials, and folk crafts. This will be my mid-week focus, Tuesday and Wednesday, and I will do all the prep on Monday, gathering all the supplies and making samples.

Agenda Today:

1. Read "The Creativity Book"

2. Evaluate my creativity habits

3. Craftivism plans

4. Preschool plans

5. Do the smallest thing

Maidyozarem

The Zoroastrian community honors the six seasons of the year by celebrating six Gahambars - the word gahambar means "proper season". Each of these six festivals is celebrated for five days, and each honors one of the six material creations: The heaven, water, earth, flora, fauna and man.

Maidyozarem, the first Gahambar of the Zoroastrian year, means "mid-spring", and it celebrates the creation of the sky, heaven, the stars, and the hot nebulous cloud of the fire of the Universe. It takes place each year from April 30 through May 4th.

Agenda this week:

1. Recite prayers

2. Make Kachumber Salad

Make My Dreams Reality

I have a dream of a world where people are an integral part of nature and we show our love and respect with our actions every day; a world where people have a growing awareness of how to change our habits to care for the earth, and a growing and expanding love, to shift us all towards life.

I read the phrase "transformative eco-justice" on a webpage a few months ago, and it has been hanging in my heart: My dream is to live that transformation, and teach about it. 

Agenda:

1. Read "How to Manifest"

2. Write an invocation

3. Starting

Full Thunder Moon and Asalha Puja

The full moon of July is called ameku, the mid-summer moon, by the Kalapuya of our area, and the thunder moon by others. July days have the humming energy of a summer storm. The sun is at the peak of its power, lighting all corners with its radiance, and burning away all non-essentials. It's a month of passion and activity: I'm challenged to find integrity in my actions and expand into my Truth.

We are now at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon.

Today is also Asalha Puja, a Theravada Buddhist festival that takes place on the full moon of July. Asalha Puja celebrates the Buddha's first sermon, in which he set out the teaching of the four noble truths. The day is observed by donating offerings to temples and listening to sermons.

Agenda: 

1. Take a vision walk

2. Celebrate abundance

3. Read Happier at Home

4. Study the Four Noble Truths

Our Guiding Light

This week of advent I focus on the Guiding Light of God. My image of God is the Creator Spirit of earth and sky, and the Love and Light that lives in all people. I think of Light as Truth, with a capitol T.

I try to live always awake and listening for the message of love, and always feeling a connection to Creation, but I often get distracted. I often feel disconnected, disengaged, and detached. This week I plan to take some time to heal my relationship with my Guiding Light.

Agenda:
1. Read a novena

2. Set an intention

3. Prayer journal queries

4. Watch Hogfather with a Friend

An Earth-Quaker Advent

What is an Earth-Quaker advent? It's simple and earthy! 

As I've said, my Earth-Quaker way of celebrating is to acknowledge and mark the changes of the season as they progress. The season of advent is when I celebrate the darkness, and the hope of returning light.

Darkness is not all bad; it can be cozy. Darkness leaves space for mystery, reflection, and quiet growth. But the world holds so much chaos, grief, war, famine and hunger; it's important to remember to have hope, and shine the light.

Gill Sewell says in "A Quaker Reflection on Christmas":

As nights draw in, it is a reminder to me that I need to hold my spark of light faithfully and boldly, witnessing in the darker corners of my community. Holding and living by the Quaker testimonies of peace, simplicity and care of the environment remains a challenge in my preparations for a Christmas celebration. I make donations (including at the food bank), try to make good ethical choices with my purchases, and identify ways in which to share.

Agenda:

1. Read a novena
2. Dawn prayer for Creation

3. Prepare my duck yard

Las Posadas

Tonight is the start of Las Posadas, a nine-day Mexican celebration that begins on December 16 each year. Posadas is Spanish for "lodging", and the nine days represent the nine months of Mary's pregnancy.

Tonight is also the start of the Christmas Novena in Italy. A Novena is a Catholic ritual, a prayer repeated daily for nine days. It can take place at any time of the year, but one of the most observed is the Christmas Novena, recited or sung during the nine days leading up to Christmas day. Las Posadas comes from that same tradition.

Agenda:

1. Listen to novenas

2. Set out our crèche

3. Have a Posadas procession

4. Pinata party!

Indigenous People's Day

Happy Indigenous People's Day! Some people celebrate the second Monday in October as Columbus Day, but many of us prefer to honor instead the people who were here in the Americas for centuries before Columbus "discovered" it. 

Many cities are finally making the name change official, adopting Indigenous People's Day to celebrate the people and their culture, and also to reflect on their ongoing struggles in this land. The celebration today includes powwows, drumming, dancing, Native American foods and crafts.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Earth Path"

2. A Creation story

3. A note about appropriation

4. Land and people acknowledgement

5. Drumming