Flying Through Advent

Blue Bonnet and I came back to my office to find my angel flying sideways on my Christmas tree. It made me laugh out loud. I think most of us feel like we are flying sideways trying to stay in the Advent Spirit of joyful waiting and also taking in all the hustle bustle of the Christmas holiday preparations.

This year, I find myself moving in a different spirit of Advent and the Christmas holidays. At the hospital, I find myself navigating a mixture of emotions. For some patients, the gift they get from the hospital will be the only gift they get all year. Some patients don’t want to talk about Christmas memories or traditions because they don’t have any good memories. The darkness is real and suffering is agonizing.  For some of us, bringing those dark painful traumatic memories to light is the dawn of advent. I have found being present and being a witness of their suffering is for them the incarnation healing. No words—just listening with the ear of your heart as Benedict instructs us.

Sometimes flying sideways is enough!

Trish Dick, OSB