Monday, December 14, 2009

Advent/Solstice Sunday,Part 3 and Other Ramble


This Sunday found us lighting the candles in daytime, as we had to go from church to home to my nephew's b-day celebration and back home too late for dinner. The lack of night (or at least that's what I'm blaming it on) meant the kids were in no way tired or calm. Surprisingly, Batman was not produced when they were asked to pick animals to place in the circle. Being thankful for the animals, reminded me of this fella who was leisurely lying around in our backyard garden when we collected stones for this first week of Advent.

We have been quite busy with baking, crafting, and holiday activity. Pics will soon go up for our Crafty Crow kids ornament swap. They were fun to create and only one item ended up in the dog's digestive tract.
The holidays, the births of a new niece and nephew right around the corner,and a parenting book club I hosted last week, have put me in a contemplative mode. I'm wondering how well (or not well) Mr. Pie and I are doing in this parenting journey. In my book club reading, The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, the author shares a word in Hebrew, tsimtsum, meaning "contraction of divine energy". The phrase suggests even God has to let go. I love that the translation uses the word contraction. Parenting is a beautiful and painful process, and the contractions, the labor of it all keeps coming in waves. Ultimately, with each contraction, we let go of them, they release their grip on us ... stand on their own, speak on their own, become their own ... hopefully the imprints we leave are more helpful than harmful, more good than bad, more light than darkness.

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