Advent Unplugged!

 I'm on my way into another retreat!! Advent is almost here, and it is going to be a good one - thanks to Haley at Carrots for Michaelmas, who is leading the way for Advent Unplugged.

Advent is one of those seasons that is too often abandoned - merged into a sort of extended 'Christmas-y' sort of season. And neglected as we hunt for that perfect gift or that long-lost recipe (the only way to make pierogi). So I'm going to 'unplug' a bit, and merge some of Haley's suggestions into my own life:

• The phone will be off again for much of the day. Morning hours are 6-8, afternoon hours are 3-5..or whenever Seth is on the road. Leave a message if you need me!
• No internet for me while Yarrow is awake or Seth is out of work/not working on his art..when people are with me, I need to be with them! Fully present and engaged!
• Practice the art of 'making work into play' - enjoying all the little and challenging aspects of life - from 2am stove-feedings to early mornings in the dark. 
• Spiritual Reading! This year it's Meditations on the Tarot (and no, that doesn't mean what you think it means! Totally Catholic, non-divinatory, so don't worry!) and the book of Jeremiah.
• Fasting: Advent is about fasting too! My plan is to do 24 days of 'Real Food' - inspired by Lisa at 100 days of Real Food. But skipping the meat (and suffering through the knowledge that I have two whole pigs in the freezer, waiting to be devoured!) 
• Another aspect of fasting I want to add into this Advent is a easier version of our Lenten fast.. Setting aside Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as days of particular penance - maybe having set meals of a bland sort for those days. 
• Playing more! With Yarrow, with Seth, with poor, long-sufffering Luba, and with God!

 

My goal is more silence - less chatter; more music - less noise; more prayer - less fretting. More love and more ritual and more joy. With Seth now spending more time at home and less on the road - Thanks to Paperwine Industries, his adventure on Etsy - we have more of an opportunity retreat together into the soul of Advent. And I am so ready for this! Who wants to join in??

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