Wednesday 28th November - Advent begins to begin

Once my birthday has happened, I really start thinking about Advent, and then Christmas.

Each year I try and make time for a bit more Christian spirituality in Advent to balance the practical preparations for Christmas. This year I have bought a book (or rather downloaded it) called Art in Advent which takes a picture as a starting point for a daily meditation. I have refrained from reading too much in advance; just enough to see that the first picture is this;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancient_of_Days

 by William Blake, called 'The Ancient of Days'. Interestingly, wikipedia notes that the image was used for the cover of Stephen hawking's book 'And God Created the Integers'




I follow the blog written by a Benedictine called Dame Catherine Wybourne. Today she gives 5 suggestions to follow in Advent;

Summarised, they are

1. Read the daily lessons set for the Mass (or Eucharist)
2. Try and find a few minutes every day for prayer
3. Try and find some silence each day
4. Keep it simple, and keep it kind 
5. Try not to worry about all the commercialism, or meeting the demands of everyone. A smile or some kind words can be a precious gift to share. 

I reckon I can 'try', starting on Sunday 2nd December, the first Sunday in Advent - and I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't succeed.

Less 'spiritually', I will enjoy opening the little doors in my wooden Advent calendar (a birthday present from several years ago), lighting the tealights and the advent candles I have bought, and hanging the decorations of the cloth calendar I made.

The Tree will be going up this weekend, or more likely next weekend. Good and Early!

Meanwhile, right now, I am celebrating finishing a course of antibiotics by having a glass of ginger wine and some palmiers.

I have already listened to some of today's music from the 'Year of Wonder' book;
Chopin Nocturne in D flat major. I didn't like the first version I listened to, but this Barenboim one suits me better. I have been learning this one in B flat minor, but I've a long way to go. Here's Barenboim again...