Stock up on a few ideas and cook up something eternally new.
(Pt I of a series of unabashedly over-metaphorical posts)
(Pt I of a series of unabashedly over-metaphorical posts)
... JMJ ...
Something about this idiom seems silly I admit, but there's too many good neglected possibilities out there to just keep trying the same thing the same ways. To become a part of your life you must invest something, some kind of creative self-donation. The easiest and most powerful way of doing this when there are a lot of options is to toss ideas together and look for sparks, but I'm mixing my metaphors.. maybe a tossed sacramental salad..hmm..
Anyway consider this page to be your local sacramental grocery store. Open up a favorite text editor, word processor, calendar or planner and browse down the "aisles" selecting items to drop into your "cart". If something's out of stock or spoiled contact the stockboy below.
Aisle 1: Staples
- Silence
- Openness
- Attentiveness
- Scripture
- Prayer
- Natural world
- Church teaching
- Year round traditions
Aisle 2: Seasonal (Advent + Christmas season traditions)
- Fasting (and feasting)
- Almsgiving
- Visitation
- Advent Candles
- Advent Calendar
- Nativity Scenes
- small
- medium
- large
- cumulative/dynamic
- Jesse Tree
- The Joyful mysteries of the Rosary
- The journey of the Holy Family
- The journey of the Wise men
- Galilee, Judea, and Bethlehem
- Family Gatherings
Aisle 3: $aucepans (means, methods and real goods to buy, build, and incarnate with) and Spices (new, unlikely, and rare things)
- Daily routine
- Desktops
- Table tops
- Rooms
- Walls
- Niches
- Corners
- Windows
- Porches
- Yards
- Feast tables
- Refrigerators
- Calendars
- Day planners
- Computers
- Maps
- Boxes
- Baskets
- Buckets
- Cardboard
- Kraft paper
- Wrapping paper
- Stationary
- Christmas cards
- Index cards
- Holy cards
- Candles
- Lights
- Music
- Ribbon
- Religious catalogs
- Magazine clippings
- Web clippings
- Paint
- Play doh
- Building blocks
- Photo albums
* Don't be afraid to comment-in overlooked advent-just-wouldn't-be-the-same-without-this items, methods or explanations I've missed or botched...
I'm going to chronicle (mostly as a for-instance) what I'm picking and doing this year. If I finish my "recipe" in time (or as the Spirit moves me) I'll come back and fill in or flesh out some of the other items. If you're interested check back next year and see if things have changed.. If interest is high and sustained enough this series of posts could be promoted into a whole year-round multi-contributor blog/project (or even eventually a collection-of for all the special feasts). Honestly, this is one of the things that should have already happened (or atleast been started) with the many luxuries and colaborative tools of modern life. Alas the children of earth have always been wiser..