Wait-for-it!

It’s getting towards the end of term now. Deadlines have come and gone, festivities are going on, and home-time is coming thick and fast. Yet I still have to wait. Daily. It’s currently day thirty-two since I sent my teacher training application off. They’re meant to respond within twenty-eight days but the GTTR was a bit of a fail-whale and there’s a backlog. I’m not freaking out, but I have been getting antsy. The email alert goes off and I’m on outlook like a fish to water. Still nothing though.

There is an irony behind this though. It’s advent. A time for waiting. A time for re-positioning your eyes to something else. And there I am seeing miniature envelopes everywhere I go. I have learnt something though. It’s okay to wait.

Waiting, whilst being a pain in so many ways, is also a positive thing. We wait for our birthdays. We wait for holidays. About two-thousand years ago, people were waiting for a saviour. The overlap of advent and my teacher training application has led to me generally being in a place of peace. Don’t get me wrong, I really want to get a response from the Institute of Education, but the waiting period has allowed me to focus on something that for me is much more important. I am trying to put the anxious waiting to one side, and in return excitedly wait for Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus and what that means to Christians everywhere.

Waiting can be a distraction. Or, waiting can be a tool to refocus. Waiting can be controlling. Or, we can let go. In fact waiting itself is fairly neutral - it’s what you do with the wait that counts.

Tis the Season!

It’s been a while since I last blogged. I wouldn’t be surprised if over a year had past. You shouldn’t worry though, my mind is still musing over lots of pretty interesting things; some of which you may get a peak at it in the near future.

Today marks the start of advent. I’m pretty excited about this for a couple of reasons; the advent calendar is waiting to be opened – after all what are the major Christian holidays about if not for enjoying a good bit of chocolate? – and I get to start a new book. Rather than just ignoring what’s going on through the advent season, this year I thought that I would devote a bit of time to thinking about what advent really is. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting my thoughts and feelings on the run up to Christmas with a bit of help from Richard Rohr’s book Preparing for Christmas – Daily Meditations for Advent.

Rohr suggests that ‘Jesus identified his own message with what he called the coming of the ‘reign of God’ or the ‘kingdom of God,’ whereas we had often settled for the sweet coming of a baby...’ For a couple of weeks already the towns have been in full swing; lights are up, songs are being sung. In my case, a housemate has already received numerous death threats from the rest of us for being inappropriately Christmassy. Now that the 1^st December has arrived – and it actually feels like Christmas... have you seen how cold it is outside?! – enjoy yourself, be merry, have a few too many, eat some lebkuchen, but take time to reflect what this period means to you personally. For me and many others, we are looking forward to the coming of God to this world. But it is equally alright to look forward to having a good feast in twenty-five days time.

So just a few things to remember now that advent has started:

• Enjoy your advent calendar!
• Don’t be afraid to watch ‘The Holiday’ or start singing Christmas songs.
• Don’t forget what advent means to you – spend time reflecting on what the season is all about.