Six weeks later...what did I learn?

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It's been six weeks since my last Beer Lahai Roi post. Wow, it went by in a flash.

I sewed costumes literally up to the production date; we left town the next day (actually, I missed the final two performances because we traveled home to Indiana for Christmas).  We've been doing holiday stuff pretty much non-stop since.  I thought THIS week would be a down-time week but, no, not so much.  My Sweet Babboo did have to go back to work yesterday, but The Actor just pulled out a little bit ago to head back to Florida so that means today is laundry and tomorrow is the start of the de-decorating.  I am telling myself I will get back to the desert series next Friday.

I am ready.

I am not joking; this was kind of a brutal Advent.  I have been told that NEXT year's Christmas production will be the FIRST weekend in December; so next year's holiday will not be so consumed with production-related stuff.  And, knowing what's coming, maybe we can get some prep done ahead of time...like, say, in June, lol.

But all of that is to say that I really, really neglected the spiritual side of the holiday.  Advent was not spent on eschatological reflection; it was spent taking care of the next urgent thing.

I am here to tell you that neglecting the spiritual aspect of the holiday season really makes for a dry season.  The whole thing had a 'going through the motions' feel to it, from putting up the decorations to wrapping the presents even to attending the traditional Christmas Eve service in the historic Methodist church back home.  I just wasn't there, quite, and I could feel it.

And that makes me sad.

So if I have ANY New Year's Resolutions, it would be to order life so that the holidays of the year...primarily Easter and Thanksgiving/Advent/Christmas...would not be so consumed by the urgent that I can't process the eternal.  Not that I won't do the urgent stuff, but, hopefully, if the rest is in line the urgent won't consume everything.

Which means I need to start NOW.

That's really going to be a struggle for this Tigger personality.  But it needs to happen. 

I need it to happen.  I want to be able to reflect in Advent and celebrate Christmas.

I didn't think I was going to get a 'WORD' for 2020, but maybe I did.

Maybe the word is 'Preparation'.

So that Christmas 2020 is a spiritual restoration that I entirely missed in 2019.

Amen.  Even so, come Lord Jesus.