Advent 2024: Look

St. Naum at Monastery of St. Naum, Macedonia, (c) T. Brett McMahan

Advent Day 5, December 5, 2024

You Reading This, Be Ready ~ by William Stafford

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life –

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

This poem by William Stafford graced my inbox a couple of days ago, a gift from a group called Grateful Living (grateful.org). One of the reflection questions for this poem of questions was, “How would you answer the first question?”  Starting here, what did I want to remember?

What did I want to remember from that very moment reading that poem?  I stopped and looked around.  My tabby cat was sitting on my lap.  The dawn was just breaking across the sky.  I noticed several trees that refused to release their last leaves. The flame from my candle undulated, shape-shifting. The tip of the wick looked like a face surrounded by shimmering light, and I felt a deep sense of Presence. This image of the flame and this sense of Presence were what I wanted to remember.

In his poem, Stafford goes on to suggest taking what we noticed into our day, into our evening, like tucking a pebble in a pocket, so I did so.  When I felt stressed or anxious, I recalled that spot of time when all was still, when I felt at peace, and that memory anchored me back to the truth of that simple, brief experience. I realized that while we wait, for whatever, we are invited to pay attention to the very moment in which we live and breathe and in doing so, discover glimpses of grace.  I believe that’s why the Christ reminded us again and again to “Stay awake! Be alert! Keep watch!” because he knew, being human, distractions would come and steal us away from the gift of a moment. 

Like practicing silence, it takes discipline and desire to stop and be still, a lesson for any Advent season.  As Stafford asks,

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

Blessings ~ Rosemary