Unless our motion censor floods our yard with light, or the moon peeks out, we live surrounded by deep dark this time of year. After spending more than an urban decade surrounded by sirens, car alarms and booming bass bellowing from pounding cars and rarely seeing stars, rural life pulls you back to another time. A slower time. A darker quieter time.
I spotted a Santa Advent Calendar in a store the other day and I wondered how a parent explains to a kid what "advent" means if their only frame of reference is a big guy with red cheeks holding a lumpy bag. But kids do get the "waiting" part of December. They hear "not now!" enough.
The countdown to Christmas comes in many forms. Hurried trips to the post office. Stressful trips to the grocery store. Manic trips to the mall. Trips. Tripping. Tripped up.
We pack so much anxiety and nostalgia into that "Santa bag."
So, what IS Advent? I'm not a theologian so I can only tell you what it is for me.
The Maori people of New Zealand still chant their creation story by first calling it "a breathing space of immensity." That's what Advent is.
They speak of a time when the Universe was in darkness. No light at all. That's what Advent is.
They chant: "Darkness, become a light-possessing darkness."
After my last posting about the dolphin-killing ritual still performed in Denmark, my husband's only comment was, "Well, that was dark." I thought, "Welcome to Advent."
The Maori people unwind their unique cosmology story this way: "Light, become a darkness-possessing light." That's what Advent is.
They sing: "Let there be one Light above. Let their be one Light below...a Dominion of Light...And now a bright light prevailed."
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