Getting Ready

I’m ready. No, wait a minute...where are my keys? And my phone. Did you feed the cat?   Oh, crap! Where’s my purse? Hold on--I need to run upstairs and check if the light’s on. Has the dryer stopped? Do I have my umbrella? (my sweater, the dry cleaning, the key to the UPS box, the claim check for whatever, change for the parking meter..) Yes. I’m ready to go. Maybe.

This is the commonplace, the usual flurry of getting out the door on an average day. Nine times out of ten, I’ll forget something--or, by the time I reach the car, will have forgotten at least one of my destinations on the everyday merry-go-round we call living. Some days it’s more like a rollercoaster, but I’m still buying my ticket and hopping on the ride. Ever hopeful, that’s me.

But this week, Advent has begun. We are getting ready for Christmas, for the arrival of our favorite guest..and no matter what the kids tell you, it’s not Santa or elves or reindeer. I am about as ready as I am on my everyday trips, which is ‘not very’. I’m ready to light the candles (they are in the top drawer of the china cabinet--way in the back: three purple, one pink, right by that circular glass candle-holder..) and I know where to find the prayers for each day, I think. 

But those are not the important parts. They are things. Anyone can gather up things and put them in their places and follow the procedure. Light the candle, Say these words. Unimportant. The real readiness is within--the place where all those butterflies live, the ones that flutter around, muttering about cards and presents and mailing deadlines and parties and dinners and cookies and decorating. Clearing out the butterflies makes room for a baby and his story, makes room for the small kindnesses we need to show each other, makes room for looking at the world with the love and mercy that we sorely need to show all year long. 

Forget the damned keys, the phone, the cat, the purse. Leave behind the to-do lists. Focus on the day, the sun, the clouds, the sheer opportunity of today and the hope that comes tomorrow and every day that follows. Look around and see all we have to be thankful for, and all we have to give. Look ahead for the coming of the baby this Christmas and welcome him--and all his creation-- with kindness and love and mercy. Get really ready, inside, outside, all around.

O come, O come, Emmanuel.