Sometimes Life…

My favorite Christmas song is Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel. Well, actually, it’s not a Christmas song. It’s an Advent song. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus. Advent encompasses the waiting for a Savior. I’ve discovered of late that I’m more a fan of Advent than Christmas itself, because even after all these years, I’m still waiting; waiting for good news, for the turn around, for a sign of life, for that glimmer at the end of the tunnel, and on most days, for the other shoe to drop. I worry and I wait. I’ve grown accustomed to it.

It will come as no surprise then for me to say that by most people’s standards I’ve turned into a bit of a Scrooge at Christmas time. I dread the holiday. I dread the shopping, the fight for parking. I dread seeing greed and gluttony in action. I dread the Christmas music that starts before Halloween. I want it over before it begins.

Even so, I am hopeful. Really I am. But I do not hope as I did in my youth for presents and things, for more shoes I don’t need, a new kitchen gadget or an iTunes gift card. I do not hope to find ornaments on sale on the 26th. I hope for an end to conflict – mostly in my own life because I’m kinda self-absorbed, but most certainly I hope for an end to conflict on the planet too, because it all just seems too much for a world with so much unrealized beauty to bear. Maybe I notice all the tragedy more acutely this time of year because it looks so stark up against all the glitter of the holidays. Maybe I really am just a Grinch. I don’t know…

Now if this post doesn’t make you want to come to my house for Christmas dinner, I don’t know what will…

I started making a slide show video set to my favorite rendition of Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel late December last year, after the floods in Nashville, TN. I never finished it, because Advent had passed and it just didn’t feel like the right timing. Last Sunday at mass, I was reminded that Advent and the beginning of the liturgical year start this week. The video project I abandoned 12 months ago suddenly popped back into my head.

It seemed somewhat dated when I first revisited the project in iMovie three days ago. Yes, that Nashville flood was sooo “last year.” But you don’t have to look far to find tragedy in the world, do you? How about an earthquake? A tsunami? A hurricane? A war? A protest? A famine? An AIDS crisis?

Now I seriously don’t mean to rain on your Christmas parade, really I don’t. I want you to have a happy one. Honest. All I wish to provide in having pieced together this little video is some perspective – mostly for myself, if we’re keeping it real. Seeing and assembling these photos didn’t depress me, per se. It put my own small woes in their place. It made me mindful. It made my heart bigger. And if that isn’t what Christmas is about, well then I’ve got the whole thing wrong. There is so much to be grateful for without spending a dime, without having to overstuff ourselves with 3rd and 4th helpings of turkey and pie, and without trampling one another on Black Friday for an X-box and an iPad2. Am I right?

No matter the time of year, no matter the continent, no matter the people, there is sorrow to be found. Where there is sorrow, there is hope that needs to be restored… and there is a peace worth waiting for.

And so… I wait…

In: Short Stories | | #