Monday, November 30, 2009

Advent- the first light

I did not grow up in a family that marked advent, so when we began Waldorf with all its festivals, advent was another one I had to learn about.  The first couple of years, it just meant a walk along a spiral made of evergreen boughs.  As the children got older and the festival became something I brought to our family without a community, I had to bring some meaning to it.  So, please forgive me if the following post does not fit with any long standing traditions regarding advent.

"The first light of advent is the light of the stones"
That's the beginning of the poem we recite as we light our advent candle this week.  From the stones or dirt come everything.  We chew with them, they support our skeleton, we eat them as minerals, we hold them to our ears to hear the sea.  These things that seem lifeless are part of the light we each carry inside ourselves.

And now, especially this far north, we become very aware of how very dark the world can be.  We feel the lack of sunshine.  It becomes an inward time to focus on our internal light so that we can then carry this special bit into the world.  And this week, we acknowledge that even the stones have some of that light.

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