Expectant Silence: An Advent Poem

Over at Spirituality and Practice I am engaged in an Advent retreat (Child of the Light with Beth Richardson) designed to connect me to the spiritual aspects of the season of Advent. As the days grow shorter and shorter, and the nights longer and colder, I am spending time everyday listening to a Christmas hymn/song, meditating and reflecting on what resonates within me as I stop, take a breath, quiet my mind and find myself centered in the wonder of being alive, in this special time and place, being me.

This morning, as sunrise streaked across the sky, in the aftermath of a wild wind storm yesterday where lawn furniture was blown all around and the side of my garage looks like the Revenge of the Soured Crab Apple has struck, I breathed deeply and found myself opening up to the wonder of this day.

I am seeking a place of quiet. A place where the hustle and bustle of the season wanes as I find that place within where I know connection, contemplation and communion with the world, within and outside of me. Where I live from my poet's heart, sensing the world through the beauty expressing itself through my soul's desire to be the one I have been waiting for, just as the Christian world awaits the birth of the One it has been waiting for.

And in that moment of quiet, this became my poem for the day.

Expectant Silence  (An Advent Poem)

In expectant silence
the world awaits
the coming
of a child
heralding
a world
of peace
hope
love
and
joy.

In the quiet
of dawning light
I await
morning
streaming rose and gold
threads of glory
filling the sky
with the promise
of a new day
born in the darkness
of the night

silence descends
light enters

I feel
the breath of God
awakening my soul
with fluttering wings
I become an oasis
of peace
hope
love
and
joy.