Advent...waiting...quiet

This year I have been trying to be more disciplined in this season of Advent, creating deliberate space in my day where I can wait. Rather than opening my front door and get swept away by the wind of hurriedness...I go inside, to stillness, to the calm, to the quiet and wait. There is no agenda, no wish list, no to do list...only to listen, to meet and greet one another. Sometimes there are words, sometimes just peace...sometimes we just embrace. In my Advent I'm learning to wait again...

A friend Antony at to the Quiet, who has always encouraged me with his words, and his journey, recently shared this short video clip a meditation for the first week of Advent (now closer to its end than its beginning) from Bob Carlton at The Corner. The song used with his images is a new one to me, but speaks so resonantly (is that actually a word?) to my soul just now. Its a song by Paul Simon, called simply Quiet. This Advent, make time for that place of waiting and of quiet.

Quiet  By Paul Simon the album You're The One

I am heading for a time of quiet
When my restlessness is past
And I can lie down on my blanket
And release my fists at last

I am heading for a time of solitude
Of peace without illusions
When the perfect circle
Marries all beginnings and conclusions

And when they say
That you're not good enough
Well the answer is
You're not
But who are they
Or what is it
That eats at what you've got
With the hunger of ambition
For the change inside the purse
They are handcuffs on the soul, my friends
Handcuffs on the soul
And worse

I am heading for a place of quiet
Where the sage and sweetgrass grow
By a lake of sacred water
From the mountain's melted snow

Thanks to Bob Carlton at the Corner for the Video, and Paul Simon for the words...for taking us to that place.

Remember that while you are seeking you are also being sought… you will be found. You will be led. You will enter in. Look for that. Expect it. Expect to come to revelations of the Lord. Expect shells to break in their season. Expect boats to ride as the tide comes in. This is hope, to desire and to expect.
—Oswald W.S. McCall
Christian author and mystic