ADVENT BLOG WEEK 2

What are you willing to let go of this year?

A normal Christmas, and certainly one that is on a schedule!

It’s been a rough year. January through mid-April was the final push to get my parents Personal Property readied for an online auction and they had a lot of stuff packed in their home and storage barn. After the previous year of six months of hard work, a vacation was a due reward. And it was a good River cruise in Germany. However it resulted in a variant of COVID that literally knocked me down. Since May, I have had infection after infection. Throw in an accident that caused some damage that needed PT and I haven’t been well at all for some time. Since Thanksgiving I’ve had the older adult version of RSV. I’ve been home, resting, staying warm and dry.

The blog prompt “What are you willing to let go of this year?” seemed to fit me well. I don’t really have a choice. I have to let go of almost everything that is “Christmas” to me this year. To balance that, I have totally focused on Advent and the spiritual preparation of my heart.

Some of the things I’ve let go of this 2023 Holiday season:

• • Shopping trips to get ideas. Either I think of it inside my head and order online, or they just don’t get the gift. I don’t even have a list of who I want to give gifts to this year. I’ve kept it to a minimum — kids, spouse, siblings. I usually have close friends and church family but I just can’t handle it this year. Cards, I hope, will have to do.

• • Online shopping only OR delegating to my spouse. “Go to this store and find a couple of items like this.” And I am happy with whatever he finds! Order for pick up at Target. Order at Amazon. This has created a follow up nightmare, tracking deliveries to make sure everything ordered and paid for arrives.

• • Decorating the house hasn’t started at all yet. Maybe I’ll decorate the tree. I do love the tree lit and sparkling. But I’m still sick, and I seem to be in constant Afib as a result of the meds for my lungs. It us very hard to get up and down, do the stairs, without getting dizzy and exhausted. So IF there is any decorating, it will be minimal.

• • Cards and a Christmas Letter. I did buy cards. I’ve got a draft of a letter. I am not going to stress over when they get mailed! 2022 cards were only partially mailed (remember what I was doing 2922 and beginning of 2023?), so I’ve got a puzzle to put together. I’d like to get it done so that 2024 can be clean. But I will not stress myself on this one.

• • Parties, concerts, going to the movies, entertaining, a Christmas Tea — I had to let go of any social life. First because I’m contagious and don’t want to share this infection. But also because I just want to be exposed to any other viruses that are out there. I don’t think my body could fight them off. So I have purposely cut myself off socially. I attend church on live stream, I Zoom if I have to talk to someone, and I don’t talk long because I start coughing.

• • Baking, cooking and all the eating things — I have no appetite! And with low energy, I can’t stand long enough to do more than brew a cup of tea. Enough said.

• • Driving around to see the Christmas lights is unlikely to happen this year. I’m usually falling asleep after dinner. But it usually a low key activity, so I may be able to convince my husband to take me for a drive.

• • Once again, I won’t make it to the Arboretum light show, because that is a walking tour. No energy for walking right now. Nope.

• • Playing in the snow won’t happen either. Of course, right now there is no snow, but it’s still early. Playing in the snow means getting cold and wet. Usually that’s fun. But when you’re sick, it could make you worse.

• • Wrapping, packing and shipping gifts will happen because I bought things for the kids. But my husband will help me.

Probably the one thing that hurts the most that I’ve had to let go of is not seeing either child at all. My kids can’t travel to me because of high maintenance pets. Yes, cats and dogs. The world has changed. I don’t mind visiting them. But this year I can’t do it. A lot of the same reasons really. I don’t have the strength yet and I can’t fight off any viruses along the drive.

What I’m holding onto very tight, is my heart, focused on Jesus, Word made flesh, tabernacling among us. Advent was made for this. Usually I start off great with good intentions, only to get caught up in the Christmas hustle and fall behind on Advent devotions. Not this year! I am fully engaged and free to take tangents off into the award, exploring ideas and concepts. Today it was God’s faithfulness. What joy there is in this Advent season as a result. No I haven’t gotten out Advent decorations. But I don’t need them really. All I need is the Lord and a humble, seeking heart.