The First Week Of Advent

The first week of advent is almost over. How quickly the days seem to move at this time of year. It is nice to take time to stop and reflect. 

Many people don't realise that advent traditionally starts on the 4th Sunday before Christmas, as most popular advent calendars tend to start advent on the first of December. Under the traditional advent, each week celebrates a 'kingdom' of life. This first week's kingdom is the mineral kingdom. Put simply, the earth we live upon- the dirt, the rocks, the ground under our feet. 

Last advent, I wrote this post about the first week of advent. Re-reading it today, made me so sad. The reverence I paid to the rugged landscape around where we used to live. Little did I know that a few short months later, those same cliff faces that formed a ring around my community would come crashing down, instilling fear into my heart, destroying homes and ending the lives of several people. The memory of watching those cliffs fall before my eyes, will, I suspect, haunt me for the rest of my life.

So this year, we have kept our advent celebrations simple. Our favorite stones, scattered within the wooden ring on our dinner table... Sometimes simple is good.