“Are you ready for Christmas?” Next time someone asks you that question, instead of responding out of whether you’ve met everyone else’s expectations of what you should get done, consider the following:  Have I sought silence today? Have I examined my conscience? Have I come to know my own soul a little better? Have I made space for the Divine to emerge from my own darkness? If, as Christmas approaches, you can answer “yes” to these questions, then you might experience the magic of Christmas this year. 

            When we neglect to get our souls ready for the holy days because we get caught up in the collective frenzy of holiday “to dos” wrought by the culture, then the arrival of Christmas may leave us feeling hollow, regardless of the number of presents bought, cookies baked or garlands hung.             
            In liturgical Christian churches, Christmas does not begin the day after Thanksgiving with the shopping season.  Instead, November's end ushers in Advent, a time to wait for the coming of the Christ Child.  Waiting is innately passive.  It doesn’t ask us to do, just to be.  The Divine Presence is at its most mysterious and ineffable at Advent.  The God, the Christ, is not yet manifest, but only a hope that our longing will be satisfied, that our waiting will end, that the Sun will rise again, even after the darkest night.  And if the unborn Christ symbolizes our deepest longings, then the goddess of Advent is the transformational power within the Void itself, the Cosmic Womb that nurtures our hope and brings it into being.  Perhaps it is the intangibility of the Divine during the weeks before Christmas that makes us rush into an early celebration of the feast itself—we long for the more familiar faces of the Mother and Child to reassure us that Heaven is near.  But how can we appreciate the return of the light, when we never allow ourselves to experience darkness?  

            Regardless of what your holiday preparation has consisted of thus far, I invite you, between now and Solstice/Christmas, to enter into Advent.  Take a few moments, here and there, to wait in the darkness.  What yearnings emerge out of your silence?

             Many people become stressed, anxious or depressed around the holidays.  Perhaps the holiday blues are actually a gift—our souls’ way of reminding us that the Christmas miracle arrives in the longest night, recognized only by those who, like the shepherds, have time to sit in the darkness and marvel at stars.