Author: clfuu

The second candle in the Advent wreath, lit as we enter the second week of Advent, represents love. “All you need is love,” sang the Beatles, and it’s possible they were right.

What love sustains you?

This is a picture of a house—if you look hard enough. Otherwise it’s a picture of three birch trunks. It wouldn’t be a great picture for a real estate agent trying to sell the house, but then, if the house were in the foreground you’d miss the texture of bark and lichen.

When have you changed your relationship to a situation by shifting how you looked at it?

One of the hard parts of being an adult is that you miss out on the pleasure of being carried—of being lifted up and protected and absolved of all responsibilities. Mostly we grown-ups are the carriers, but there can be moments when we return to that sensation of being held.

When, as an adult, have you felt carried?

Tonight marks the last of the eight nights of Chanukah. Perhaps in this drawn-out holiday the shine has worn off a bit by now – the really good presents already given, the ritual a bit perfunctory. But the holiday itself is a celebration of persistence, of not giving up in the face of what seems like certain defeat, and why not be persistent in the pursuit of joy as well as justice or simply survival?

What joy will you diligently pursue today?

It isn’t easy to bloom where you are planted, to stand out brave and vibrant when no one else seems willing to rise above the crowd. But if you don’t, who will?

When have you chosen to stand out or stand up when there was no one around you to support that choice?