Family Joy

During this week of Advent my theme is "family love and joy". Of course, the joy of the season is spontaneous and un-planable, but I do these three things to create the right conditions:

My children painted these plaster houses when they were young.

• Take the time to consider what my friends and family will want most this season. In other words, I become less self-focused and more generous in all ways. 
• Be respectful, flexible, patient, and kind (no matter how stressed I feel).
• Take care of myself so I can be calm and present for the spontaneous joy when it arises.

These are obviously year-round aspirations, but I need a daily reminder now, because, somehow, everything seems more important: I have expectations (both of myself and others) about how things should go, and that never works.

Agenda this week:
1. Read a novena

2. Daily love journal

3. Read "The Simpler Life"

4. Light a candle forJoy

Third Sunday of Advent

We made it through the second week of advent. It was a pretty calm and enjoyable time with the grandkids, with a few decorations or candles added each day, an outing to shop for gifts, a trip to the holiday market, and making a piñata together.

This next week will be different: We have several family gatherings, and lots of projects to finish before the Christmas weekend. My focus will be on maintaining calm in the chaos!

Agenda:

1. Read a novena

2. Light a candle for Love

3. Daily love journal

4. Advent wreath ceremony

5. Plan activities for family fun

Las Posadas and the Christmas Novena

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. Light a candle for Equality

3. Set out our crèche

4. Have a Posadas procession

5. Pinata party!

A Swiss Christmas

My theme for this week of Advent is "Striving to find unity and peace with all the people of the world". 

One way I love to do that is by learning about the traditions and beliefs of people throughout the world. In years past I've studied Mennonites, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, and Mexico.

This year I decided to learn more about the advent customs in Switzerland, the ancestry of my mother's grandfather, Noah Hunsberger Jones. His earliest ancestors in this country were English Quakers (hence the name Jones) and Swiss-German Mennonites, both of whom left Pennsylvania for Canada after the Revolutionary war.

Agenda:

1. Research a Swiss Christmas

2. Light a candle for Unity

3. Read Heidi

4.  Make Basler Leckerli cookies

5. Plan a fondue party!

Create Inner Peace

This week of advent my theme is "Striving to find unity and peace with all the people of the world". One way I do that is to create and retain inner peace. Right about now, as the holiday energy builds and social demands increase, I need to review practices that help me to maintain an even-temper, patience, and grounded-ness.

Agenda:

1. Prayer for the light

2. Read "Discover Inner Peace"

3. Light a candle for Peace and Equanimity

4. Daily equanimity practice

5. Daily love journal

Witness for Peace

Quakers are led by Divine guidance to cherish peace, and to testify against all wars and the use of violence.

Our Faith and Practice says: 

"Our peace testimony begins with opposition to war and is a positive affirmation of the power of good to overcome evil. ... We work to change those elements which violate our conviction that there is that of God in everyone."

By testimony we mean a call to bear witness, by our words and actions, to our ideals.

Agenda
1. Journal queries

2. Light a candle for Witness

3. Plan a Quaker Christmas celebration

4. A minute on the Conflict in Gaza

5. Set out more candles