• LEAVES - composting
• ADVENT - an alternate pre Christmas spirit

  “A new beginning.

  We (everyone helping with this new web site, both known and unknown,) are joining a world wide web adventure. We want to create an oasis of Hope on the Internet.   It is a wonderful time for a new beginning and fits into the natural season of beginnings in the North and South of the planet (see leaves).  This is my first specific writing for a global audience.  I must think of more than my own Northern hemisphere where it is late Autumn,   but since I can share most intimately what most affects me I shall use it as my Eastern Woodland bio-region, USA as my main reference.  Here the trees are almost naked and the light grows shorter by the day allowing nature to rest after the harvest of its seeds.  Underground, the quiet beginnings of life that can't yet be seen take new form and wait.

  For many people it is also Advent, ("to come" in Latin,) a season that in many bio-regions beautifully reflects the drama and cycles in our physical world.  Advent celebrates the unfulfilled.  It is a time to ponder the pregnancy of  the earth and ourselves in different seasons of our lives.  It is a time of silence and mysterious riches.   I recognize that there are many calendars, each with their own beauty and ability to unite; the feasts and fasts of many cultures and religions, football and baseball seasons, school terms and vacations.   And in this North American culture there is the new calendar of commerce which defines this season as shopping days before Christmas.

  And there's the rub!  Anyone in this culture who tries to live deeply the season of Advent experiences serious inner clash with this season of commerce.   In the spirit of this Advent season and in the spirit of  Hope for all the flowers yet to come, I offer here part of a happy interview I had with Carl McColman, Audio Buyer for NEW LEAF distributors.  It appears in full in their September catalog on the occasion of the release of the new audio cassette of Hope For the Flowers. His questions were so carefully worded that answering them was a delight. “ - Trina

Carl: My favorite line in the story comes when Yellow is struggling with Stripe's request for her to join him when he tries to climb the pillar for the second time.  She realizes that "somehow, waiting and not being sure was better than action she couldn't believe in."  That's a powerful statement - and also a challenging one, for I believe we live in a world where "not being sure" and "waiting" are not valued.  Can you share with us any insights on this wisdom?  Where did you learn the value of uncertainty and waiting?

Trina: This is  a frequent theme in the book.  Yellow's leadership of love is possibly best shown in her ability to wait.  She waits to know what she should do next with her own life - against her immense urge to sacrifice her own becoming to please her "man".  She waits within her own cocoon.  She waits for Stripe to get the point.  She waits for Stripe to make the long journey down the pillar.  She waits for him to go into the cocoon and finally she waits while he is experiencing his transformation within it.

My reverence for waiting and not being sure was most deeply nurtured by my experience of silence and the great, feminine, pregnant celebration of this mystery given to us in the season of Advent, those 4 weeks before the winter solstice, the feast of new life, which the early church chose to honor the birth of Christ.  I had the privilege of living this season in its full splendor during my years with the Grail, an International Women's Movement, at their US center at Grailville, Loveland, Ohio, and it has enriched my life with dimensions of meditation, silence and prayer not easily found.

I still try to live in the spirit of Advent, but it is not possible to experience this sort of profound celebration of the not-yet, the waiting, in today's world, which has so fully eliminated that season that we think of Christmas as beginning with Thanksgiving, and ending, not beginning, on December 25.  This is the season that seems most totally condensed by our present world - to our detriment -  I believe.  We need to honor the "not yet" times in our and others' lives, like we honor what is happening in a cocoon.

Carl McColman is New Leaf's Music, Spoken Audio and Video Buyer, and the author of Spirituality: Where Body and Soul Encounter the Sacred.

Reprinted courtesy of and Copyrighted 1997 by:

NEW LEAF DISTRIBUTING CO
401 THORNTON ROAD
LITHIA SPRINGS, GA 30122-1557

www.newleaf-dist.com

HELPS TO LIVE ADVENT-

If you wish to bring more of the spiritual warmth of this special season into your personal and family life there are helps.  A friend who read this asked if it was an advertisement.  No, those I mention, don't even know I'm doing it.  I simply put myself in the place of someone intrigued by the possibility of making a different sort of atmosphere before Christmas and wanting help.  The following are what came quickly to mind.

For music which is so important to set a different tone for this season, I suggest "A women's Celebration of Chant and Harmony".  This is a recording of Gregorian chant and other Advent songs by Grail women of many ages.  It flows directly from the rich tradition we shared together.   You can get it from The Grail, 1-888-683-2302 

Also from The Grail, in the spirit of Advent's inclusive embrace of all, there is a little known jewel to give meals a world flavor, (no, not recipes!)  It is Mealtime Reflections -  Together in Prayer, stand-up flip book.   Mothers and others, Grail women all, offer simple blessings from most of the 20 countries where The Grail exists.  (The Grail is an International Movement - call for more information.)

My own publisher, Paulist Press, (no relation!) has published a number of books and videos for both adults and children on Advent and Christmas.  They contain inspiring ideas as well as delightful projects and celebrations that can help integrate the material preparations within a more spiritual atmosphere while still keeping the delicious feel of expectation.  With this sort of preparation, Christmas only begins on December 25.  One has 12 days to fully relish this feast of light until its climax on Epiphany.

One book is Advent Arts and Christmas Crafts, by my friend, Jeanne Heiberg, who has filled it with useful, fun drawings and practical advice drawn from a long life of both living this season herself and helping many families find its kernels of quiet joy.   We shared youthful Advents together at Grailville, so she has a uniquely rich experience to draw from.

I also recommend Gertrud Mueller's,” To Dance With God,” about all the seasons of the Liturgical year lived out in the home.   When I looked at Paulist's recent catalog, I was amazed to find they actually offer 11 books, booklets or videos on the Advent/Christmas theme.  Best you get their catalog with descriptions.   Call 1-800-218-1903