First Day of Advent

/ J. F. Riordan

You will have to believe me that a magnificent buck was outside my window this morning. I looked away for a moment, and when I looked back he had melted into the camouflage of leaves and bark, still, invisibly, there.

I have come to believe that the invisible things are often the most important. These are the things we feel intensely and sense around us: maybe passion, maybe tension, maybe danger, maybe the proud buck in the trees.

Advent is an invisible thing, too, covered in mystery and in the deepening darkness of the earth. I don’t think it’s contradictory, or even surprising, that in this time when the earth stands sleeping we should await, with hope, the promise of light and new life. Because whether you accept the theology or not, those things are coming, literally and visibly.

But it is the invisible that beckons, that clutches the heart and draws us deeper.

And as winter comes, that silent moving of the universe is the darkest, deepest mystery of all. What is eternal? Can some part of us be eternal, too? What is this thing that I am, that wakes, and dreams, and sees the stars, and speaks to the souls of the trees? Why am I here, this small thing, trembling at my mortality while soaring out to meet the edge of sky?

The human soul has seasons, and the earth, wheeling through darkness and light, prepares us for them.

We wait. And we watch, filled with hope and awe.

29 thoughts on “First Day of Advent”

  1. Hmmm … very well put. You feel deeply, Jan. 

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    div dir=”ltr”>Hmmm … very well put. You feel deeply, Jan. 

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    div>Love Eli’s ears. 

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  7. I miss you on Twitter, but so appreciate reading your lovely daily snapshots in my morning emails.
    Your writing has kept me safely grounded these last trying years: Moses’s butter (I lost my Pearly-Girl Boxer that same week), Eli’s Coming, Sweet Pete’s journey, Auggie’s secret cheese, and Fiona’s life on Washington Island.
    Bless you for sharing your gifts with us.
    Launie O’Leary

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  10. I smile at our souls with seasons. Yours and mine are totally different with yours in the icy days and nights, while mine lingers in Florida in the warm days and cool nights.

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  14. Another beautiful essay that touches our hearts. I miss you on Twitter, but this is so much better. To be able to read your beautiful musings and see pictures of your lovely lads. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with all of us.❤️

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  20. Thank you for your beautiful imagery.

    I too, saw a buck recently and he most graciously wandered back to the woods in the front of our house, such beauty and magnificence.

    On Tuesday, I’m sharing these words with my Bible Study group.

    They will appreciate your words, especially, “We wait. And we watch, filled with hope and awe.”

    May you be transformed during this season of waiting.

    Peace and blessings, Laura Sams

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  22. I wonder if a conversation like this ever happens here.. 😁🛌🐾❄️

    “Frog knocked at Toad’s door. “Toad, wake up, he cried. “Come out and see how wonderful the winter is!”

    “I will not,” said Toad. “I am in my warm bed.”

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