Skip to main content

Advent 2022

It's the first Sunday of Advent coming up, and for once I feel fairly well prepared! Of course, the proof is in the (Christmas) pudding - whether I actually do all this remains to be seen. If you haven't even thought about Advent yet, do grab an idea to join in with. None of them require any advance preparation except for downloading, printing or book ordering - and one of them doesn't even start until 20 December.

Something to do

I recently went to a Mindful Advent workshop, run by the lovely Stacey and Ella from Create and Connect. We spent a happy couple of hours folding origami envelopes to make our own Advent calendars, with a few mince pies to nibble as the November rain poured down outside.


I'm filling my envelopes with a short activity for each day, a Bible verse from the Christmas story, and a tiny treat for each of us. Thinking of 24 different activities was harder than folding 24 origami envelopes! Mine range from "listen to your favourite Christmas carol" and "enjoy a cup of mulled wine" to "walk barefoot round the garden" and "do a 10-minute exercise routine".

click for a larger image!

For a quick and easy version, print out the mindful Advent calendar from Calm Moment here.

Something to read


My Advent book this year is Waiting on the Word by Malcolm Guite. I'd come across Guite's set of sonnets for the Stations of the Cross, but hadn't read any more of his work. Then I discovered he had also written sonnets for each of the "Great O" antiphons (no, I didn't really know what they were, either, but they are read on specific days near the end of Advent, if you're in a church which does that kind of thing). Those sonnets are included in Waiting on the Word, and so are lots of other poems by various authors, with a short reflection on each one. It's been a while since I read much poetry. I'm hoping I like it.

Something to listen to

Very exciting - the BBC has recorded a new podcast adaptation of one of my favourite books! The Dark is Rising will be available as 12 episodes, starting on December 20th. The book's action takes place from the winter solstice to Twelfth Night. Will's traditional family Christmas of carol singing, snowfall, and mince pies is threatened by a tense battle between the Dark and the Light, as Will discovers his new powers as an Old One. Here is the introduction - it sounds great.

Something to pray


I may have mentioned Lectio 365 a few times before. This app has got me back into a regular routine of prayer, with just ten minutes a day to pause, reflect, and listen to the Bible. The family version is good, too - we do that one together much more sporadically, but the boys seem to enjoy it. The Advent series on both apps this year is Voices of Advent. Advent always seems like a good (short-ish!) time to try to pray more, so why not give it a go?

...and a cheeky drink!



The Little Brewing Company, which is local to us, have released their new cans, just in time for Christmas. There's a Christmas pudding porter and an Epiphany pale ale - what more do you need? A few of these may be on our shopping list pretty soon...
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Erewash Valley Trail: Ilkeston

You could spend a lot of time following old canals and railways in the Erewash Valley. This walk included parts of the Erewash Canal, the Nottingham Canal, the Nutbrook Canal, and the Stanton branch line, and I could have continued further along any one of those, if I'd had the time. I started in Kirk Hallam, which is mostly a post-war housing estate with a distinctive outline on the map: the main road to Ilkeston through the middle, and a loop road encircling the village. It looks like the London Underground logo. I parked at the lake at the top of the loop. There was a sculpture commemorating the nearby Stanton Ironworks - the ground remembers the roar of the blast  read the inscription around the base - and the remains of a lock on the Nutbrook Canal. Heading towards Ilkeston, I crossed a former golf course, now a nature reserve called Pewit Coronation Meadows, passed a large sports centre, and was soon in the town centre. There was a general impression of red-brickiness, with l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mr White Watson of Bakewell

Once upon a time, back in 1795 or so, lived a man who was always asking questions.  The kind of questions like, "Why is glass transparent?" or "Why do fruit trees grow better in that place than in this place?" or "What does the earth look like underneath the surface?"  This last question was one that he was particularly interested in, and he went so far as to work out what the rock layers looked like where he lived, and draw little pictures of them.  Now he was a marble sculptor by trade (as well as fossil hunter, mineral seller, and a few other things) so he thought it would be even better to make his little pictures in stone.  That way he could represent the layers using the actual rocks they were composed of.  Over the course of his lifetime he made almost 100 of these tablets, as he called them. Then he died.  And no one else was quite as interested in all those rocks and minerals as he was.  His collection was sold off, bit by bit, and the table...
Post a Comment
Read more

National Forest Way: Bagworth and Thornton Reservoir

I'd hoped to be further along with my walking by now, but a combination of illness, bad weather, and inset days meant that I couldn't get out for a few weeks. At the first sign of a break in the clouds, I was ready to go. It had rained heavily the day before, and there was still a watery feel to the air. I parked at Thornton Reservoir and donned waterproof trousers and wellies, then started by following a footpath along the back of some houses in Thornton. The village is perched on a ridge, which slopes down to the reservoir on one side, and Bagworth Heath woods on the other. view to Bagworth Heath woods I picked up the Leicestershire Round opposite the village school, and followed it past an old mill, across a railway line, and through the woods. One section of the path was particularly squelchy. At the end of the woods, the footpath sign pointed right, which I assumed meant I should follow the road. It wasn't until afterwards that I realised I could have crossed over and ...
1 comment
Read more