'Tis the season!

IT'S ADVENT.

Advent and Lent are by far my favorite seasons. Lent takes the cake, really, but Advent is very close to my heart. It was always a great time in my house growing up, with traditions that I'm very fond of. I have no interest in having children, but when one of my friends said that I'd be her children's godmother (right? I have no business having my own children, but I'd be an AWESOME godmother), I said, "Great, I'll celebrate Advent with them." Not Christmas... Advent.

Advent, for those who are unaware, is a season of preparation. Lent and Advent are both preparations... Advent for Christ's birth, Lent for Christ's death and resurrection. Thus, Advent's a bit lighter than Lent. All the leading-up-to-Christmas traditions (caroling, decorating the tree, etc.) fall here. We had some delightful Advent traditions in my household growing up. My brother and I both had small banners that I believe my mother made that had felt advent wreaths on them. Each Sunday, we'd get to velcro another felt flame on a candle. (Thinking on this now, this was a brilliant solution to the conundrum of wanting to incorporate Advent wreaths but children and fire are dangerous. Well done, parents.) We also had an Advent calendar (I believe also made by my mother), that didn't give us chocolates or gifts or anything like that, but did help us count the days towards the coming of Christ. The most unique one, though, was a small manger that sat on the table in our front foyer. Anytime we were "caught" doing something kind, we'd get to put a piece of straw into the manger. (We could also "catch" each other doing good things.) The idea was to fill the manger as full as possible with straw, so that when the small, simple wooden doll wrapped in swaddling clothes was placed into the manger on Christmas day, he'd have lots of straw to cushion him.

Personally, around this time of year, I'd bring out the tiny figurines of shepherds and wise men and the Holy family, and have them play all around the little watermill fountain we had in our house. My family in South Carolina once gave us one of those decorations of ice-skaters that move around a little frozen-over pond. I thought this was the coolest thing ever, and spent HOURS with that thing. I remember, I had them put on a musical every year. One year they did Cats. Another, Les Mis. (...wait, was this my first inkling towards directing? My life is entirely unsurprising.)

It doesn't feel like Advent for me. This is probably because it literally feels like no Advent I've ever felt before. The temperature outside right now is 90 degrees with a heat index of 102 degrees. I'm currently wearing a sundress (for real!). I'll spend the first afternoon of December on the beach.

But it is Advent, and I have been inspired by the example of Lauren Lobenhofer, Associate Pastor at Bon Air, who unfortunately arrived at Bon Air after I'd already pretty much left the state of VA, but who is awesome and I must chat with over winter break. She is blogging every day this Advent. I cannot guarantee an insightful devotional original blog every day this Advent, particularly as I have so many non-Advent related blog posts to make, but I can guarantee two quotes from books I brought with me to Ghana every day in Advent. The books are:

Sayings of the Early Christian Monks - The Desert Fathers

The desert fathers were the first ones to really embrace monasticism and asceticism, and their examples of humility and devotion are both inspiring and difficult to swallow at times. Been obsessed with them ever since one of the sermons at Worship and Music this past summer. This is a collection of anecdotes and sayings passed on through the years.

The Art Spirit - Robert Henri

This book was assigned to me my first year, and lovely dubbed, "Boyfriend", because open up to any page and you'll find something inspiring. About art, about life. It's a collection of letters, lecture notes, and various quotes of Robert Henri, American painter and teacher (The Eight, Ashcan School).

I will attempt to translate one using the other because really we're all talking about the same thing.

So, starting off:

"A brother asked him, 'How ought we to live?' Poemen replied, 'We have seen the example of Daniel. They accused him of nothing except that he served his God.'"

--Desert Fathers.

(Daniel refused to worship idols and then was thrown in a den of lions but everything was okay.)

"If I were you, I would prefer a short and courageous career in art teaching to one that would be prolonged by hedgings. What does it matter if by standing for the one thing you really believe in, fighting for it, giving to others the reasons you have used in your own conviction, making no weak concessions, you fail. Such failure is success. You keep your likeness, anyhow."

--The Art Spirit.

(do we see the parallels???)

In other news, in two weeks time, I will be (probably asleep, let's be real) in Virginia. Seeing a reading at the Firehouse Theater that night. I have 13 days left here (well, 12.5), which is both too long and too short of a time. I'm feeling thoroughly strange about life right now, which I guess is to be expected. Seeing the most recent Harry Potter movie didn't help me at all. It came out in Ghana on Friday, and I was there, along with 35 other NYU in Ghana students, along with pretty much every obroni in Accra under the age of 30. Reminded me of things and people I've been away from for far too long. At the same time, I'll go to class at the University of Ghana and my Ghanaian classmates ask me when I'm leaving, and my heart breaks a little bit. One of my roommates, Madison, is going home early to go to her graduation. She leaves Friday or Saturday or something crazy like that. She's having fun messing with us. She told me, "I'm going to go to the breakfast cart on Astor Place and take a picture in front of it and upload it to your facebook wall from my phone because I'll have access to technology again!" (We all know everyone's favorite places. And favorite people. We talk about this stuff all the time, in the moments that we miss people and are tired of rice.) I told her, "Then walk down the street past Walgreens and take a picture of 440 and post it on my wall and I'm guaranteed to cry." (So if any of you see anyone running around and taking pictures of crazy things that I'm normally around, that's just Madison. No worries.) The Farewell Dinner is on Thursday. We have a "Re-Entry Workshop" on Wednesday. My brain is scattered and I'm all over the place, emotionally.

So I'm doing a lot of collage projects.

Ways you learn to cope in theater school.

More soon.