Peace, WAY beyond understanding

This week is Christmas! The temptation is to set a frantic pace for these last few days, cram the last minute...well, everything, in.

The Prince of Peace, God is Peace, gives us a Peace that passes understanding. It certainly IS beyond understanding. How can we access peace when there are still presents to be bought, spaces to be decorated, services to be planned?!

I have to tell you, I don't know the answer to how. 

What I do know is that this peace is part of our heritage and we have to stand in faith, in hope. We prepare our hearts, we sing with joy and we trust that whatever remains undone will not keep Christmas from coming. Take a few moments to breathe, to enjoy and to believe that peace IS accessible to us - whatever our schedules may try to tell us.

The love of our God was made tangible in the baby that is our Savior. This is what we stand in.

Merry Christmas

Karlie

Sadness in the season of Joy

This time of year can be tricky. The very presence of celebration and tradition can trigger loneliness and can seem to highlight the empty places in our lives. I know. This morning I cried my way through carols as I sang with friends that I love. I was overwhelmed by sadness that hit out of nowhere. I couldn't honestly tell you that I have shaken that sadness off. But I will tell you that the family I have built helps me to breathe in the presence of that sadness. The hug of a friend, the assurance of a family member that it is okay to be sad, the little girl (not SO little anymore) who is always so glad to see me, all of these things are links in a chain that is my life preserver right now.

In our Advent Calendar, we are focusing on God as Abba or Father. Each day we are invited to do things that focus on our family, the one we are born into and the ones that we have built. In spending time together doing simple things we build memories. Those memories reap rewards down the road, and not only in your life.

This morning a friend of mine was talking about how much she loves her memories of playing cards with her grandma. Those little moments of watching her grandma hold cards with her special card holder, of the time spent together, live on in the time that my friend spends with her own children.

So take little moments this week to embrace the messy people, the silly ones, the blessed ones that are always late, even the Grinches in your life. Embrace them and acknowledge how your life is better because of them.

~Karlie

This Advent See the Person

This week our Advent Calendar focuses on El Roi, the God Who Sees. I love this name for God. So many of us just need to know that we are seen. We need a witness to our lives.

Frankly, that is something that divorce has really made me face up to. I have always been a girl, then a woman, who loves the spotlight. I am a natural performer, and I like that about me. When my ex-husband stepped out of my life, he also stepped out of the audience. It's an odd feeling for me to have no audience.

This year I had the opportunity to live and work for 4 months in Juneau, Alaska. It was awesome, truly. But I was living in a city where I knew exactly 1 person. Bit by bit my little group of people grew, but for most of my time there I would say that the circle of people who knew me by sight was barely in the double digits.

I still remember the day that I was walking downtown and I heard a car horn honk and someone called my name. It made my whole day. Someone knew me by sight and acknowledged that. Such a simple thing for her to honk her horn and call out, "Hello Karlie".

This week, celebrate Christmas by seeing the people around you. Acknowledge the crowds, by all means, but look for the person. With a smile and a Merry Christmas spread the joy of the season with eye contact and acknowledgement.

Propped up around my TV are Christmas cards from one of my cousins and two of my aunts. Just little notes that make me smile as I sit in my home 6 hours away from my family's town. Yesterday, my friend from Argentina asked me a question on Facebook about the art classes I've been teaching. Today I set up a date with my two oldest friends. They are all little things, but they remind me that I am sitting in other peoples' audiences and they are sitting in mine.

As we continue to prepare for Christmas Day, surprise a neighbor, a stranger, someone far away with the gift of being remembered.

Be Fruitful,
Karlie

Brainstorming for the Advent season

It's December 1, the beginning of the Advent season. This year I'm switching up some old traditions, revisiting some new ones and planning on soaking up the sights and sounds of the season. Christmas is a time for traditions, history, AND new experiences.

The last several years I've had the opportunity to create an Advent Calendar for my community, and every year it's been a little different. Every year I've re-created the wheel. I know, I know, re-inventing the wheel flies in the face of conventional wisdom. But hear me out.

Every year I've sat down and thought about the season of Advent. I've thought of my friends whose calendars seem to be filled to the brim with family, jobs, extended family, traditions, expectations (the list truly seems to be endless).

I look forward to the movies (classic AND cheesy) that I'm going to watch. As I look ahead, I smile at the wispy memories knocking at my heart. I think about how God sent Love Incarnate in a baby whose life was touched by laughter, love, sorrow, betrayal, tragedy and victory. I embrace the history. 

And then, I brainstorm. I LOVE to brainstorm and I think it's such a perfect word for the process I go through. Like most storms, it starts small, a little idea. That little raindrop of an idea leads to several more, and then each of those leads to more, until I'm standing in the downpour overwhelmed. 

And then I walk away. I walk away figuratively, but also literally. I walk away from pages of scrawled words, a Pinterest Board stuffed with images and often a stack of magazines and books. And I let my brain sift.This part of the process is still a mystery for me. I don't know how my brain sifts, but it does. 

And then there is the list making, the dreaming, the organizing, the imagining. And finally, I start filling in spaces. I start "creating".

I love this process, and it is one of my favorite forms of therapy. Like any good therapy session, things come out that aren't meant for everyone. For instance, "wreck a snowman" has never shown up on any of the Advent Calendars I've planned, but it HAS shown up in my brainstorming. Because in brainstorming, anything goes, and it is good and healthy to have a place where anything goes.

Anyway, back to re-creating the wheel.

I understand the time saving qualities of not re-inventing the wheel. I understand why this has become an old adage. But sometimes, re-creating the wheel keeps things genuine, fresh and pertinent. That's my goal. In many ways I am re-imagining my life and I want it to be genuine, fresh and pertinent.

This year, I kept returning to the names of God. He is shown to be so many things as we read through the stories given to us in the Bible. I started listing the names, and I could literally do a different name for every day of Advent and have a list left over. I wrote all of those names down, looked up definitions and corresponding scriptures. Man! I could have aced a test. See, this is the overwhelmed part of the brainSTORM. Fun, but too much.

So, my brain sifted. 

The final product is 25 days of activities that I hope are simple and full of meaning for anyone participating. The 25 days are organized into 3 1/2 weeks and each week is planned around a different name of God; Yahweh Yireh (The Lord Will Provide), El Roi (God Who Sees Us), Abba (Father), and Yahweh Shalom (God is Peace).

Always, we are seeking to build community, so Wednesdays are "Do it Together Days". The intention is to suggest activities that are more fun if you grab a friend to do them. As we build community it is important to train our eyes to look outside our circle of friends, and so Thursdays are "Donate Days". Rather than telling people where and what to give, I compiled a list of places that are always in need of help. Then each person can give where their heart is moved to give.

Something fresh for me to think on in this season that I love, but that holds so many memories and "booby traps" to navigate. What are some of your favorite traditions this time of year?

~Karlie

Anonymous Acts of Kindness

I held a secret belief for many years that my mother was magic. She had the ability to make any situation fun, to create costumes from everyday materials and to summon celebration out of the dreariest days. Fortunately, her magic is accessible to me and she shared her tricks freely.  I had a childhood full of fun and yet, I have never believed in Santa Claus. We always knew that Mama filled our stockings and that she and Daddy delivered the treasures that we unwrapped on Christmas morning.

However, we were well versed in the stories behind the myths, we loved the bell ringing Santas. I still remember the first year I was "too old" to sit on Santa's lap.  and every Christmas Eve she would recite "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from memory.

One of the greatest things she did for my sense of wonder during the holidays is to tell me the story of the original St. Nicholas. I love that the myth of Santa Claus has it's roots in anonymous acts of kindness. Bishop Nicholas was a wealthy man, left a legacy by his parents when he was orphaned as a child. When needs arose in his community, he would deposit gold, food, whatever was needed anonymously at night. When his secret was discovered, Nicholas requested that his identity remain hidden. Nicholas lived in the 4th century and was eventually exiled and imprisoned for his faith.

Isn't that a rich history? I find the history of Santa Claus full of meaning and worthy of remembering. In our community Advent Calendar this year, we are taking the time to acknowledge the example of St. Nicholas. In church this Sunday we were given candy canes to randomly bless people with, and we have the challenge to find our own Anonymous Acts of Kindness.

I'm looking forward to...well, I guess I can't tell you ;)!