Happy New Year

No heat was kind of pest for the first night of our new beginning in the new house. The gas company had arrived on Friday night with the news that the smell was indeed a leak and despite the fact that it was probably not in our pipe we would be shut off all weekend. Hmmm......well at least we did not have a nasty accident.

So we spent the first night in our house with space heaters and thermal rated sleeping bags. It could have been a lot worse - we still have the old house so we can get a hot shower.

Advent is all about newness and beginnings. It is the beginning of the church calendar. We look forward with that sense of traveling towards Christmas. But sometimes beginnings are not as smooth as we would like them to be. Sometimes the heating is off and we find ourselves snuggled into a sleeping bag hardly daring to stick our noses into the cold night air. But there is hope - we will have heat later, and there is hope in Advent, the Lord is coming.

Even if today is not always the easiest place to be we can look forward to the real message of Christmas. This new Church year will not cost any money, this gift of God does not leave us feeling bloated and empty.

Happy New Year - enjoy the beginning of Advent as the colors finally disappear from the the world outside the Church color changes to rich pruple or blue. Enter into that, that place of contemplation and grace, that place of sorrow and riches. Christmas is coming, hear the whisper, shout it out! Jesus is coming - the cold of the winter cannot freeze that fire of incarnate love.