Writing, Parenting, and Working in the Mess: Authentic Spirituality and Social Justice

I spent much of a full week of Advent in bed, sleeping sometimes fitfully and sometimes restfully. It has been years since I was this sick, and I don't remember the last time I went to a doctor and left the pharmacy with medications. While I am aware of how blessed I am (compared to so many others I love) to know this bout of pneumonia, as awful as it felt, would heal if I just got rest, it took awhile to fully accept this. Some things, of course, still had to get done. I had to get up and get everyone off to school and daycare--then I would sleep until it was time to make supper, then sleep again until the next morning. I would read only the briefest updates on the terrible state of our country and world--and I may have made one angry call to a certain congressperson in a raspy, rambling series of words I don't remember--but mostly I disengaged. I needed rest, even from being present to the world's news. I did the only thing I absolutely had to do for work, grade my stud...

Advent showed up, and I wasn’t ready. It was the second Sunday of Advent before I got the Advent wreath out. The third Sunday before I got the house decorated.  Our Lego Advent calendar has barely been touched (though I’ve made a practice of turning over the other two each day--and this has caused more anxiety than peace).  I’ll be meeting all my work deadlines two days before Christmas--if I’m lucky.  I’m battling bronchitis/possible walking pneumonia, which doesn’t help. I finally went to the doctor today after several weeks of feeling terrible--then rallying--then feeling terrible again. Then I slept until I had to get littles from daycare, to piano, etc.  And now, at almost 1 a.m., I am wide awake. My spouse has long abandoned our bed due to my coughing--the last few weeks, it’s been me leaving, but this time I was too tired to move.  And, don’t even ask me about shopping for Christmas. There have been other challenges, too, t...