Her Spirit

I have often vowed, as a new year approached, to lose weight, use my time more wisely, be vigilant about recycling. This year, I’m resolving to concentrate on my spiritual health.

Just as I try to pay attention to my physical health with renewed vigor as one year ends and another begins--join a gym, take up karate, cut out sugar--surely I should notice what’s going on with my spirit. I believe that one feeds the other. If my spirit is sound, my physical, emotional, and mental well-being will follow. (A girl can hope!)

Yesterday while driving I had a momentary freak-out about something going on in my personal life. For several clicks of the blinker, I was consumed with worry about an issue over which I have no control.

I have put my 87-year-old mother down for a nap, and I find myself alone in a quiet space for the first time this week. I had vowed to make room for daily spiritual reflection during the Advent season, and I am here to admit to you that I failed miserably. Sigh. Surely I will do better in the New Year. I will put it at the top of my resolutions, just above losing weight and writing that novel.

On the ten-o'clock news tonight a woman tells us that a man with a gun approached her car in a threatening manner after she pulled into a parking space at an area shopping mall--a space the man apparently thought he deserved. The woman wasn’t harmed, and the alleged perpetrator was caught. So for that we can be grateful.

"The only way I could begin to forgive my ex-husband, and move on with my life,” said a friend, "was to pray for him."

According to the Religion Newswriters Association, here are the top ten religion stories for 2008:

 “To display or not to display” seems to be the dilemma in Olympia, Washington. You may already be aware of the situation, in which an atheist group put up a sign near the Nativity scene in the capitol. It reads, in part, “There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.” Goodness knows I’m all for freedom of speech, and freedom of religion, but that hurts.

Sunday was “Lessons and Carols” at my church, in which scripture readings of the Christmas story are interspersed with music. No homily, no announcements, no communion. Just scripture and music. And it is enough.

It’s the time of Advent in the Christian church, four weeks of expectation and preparation as we head toward Christmas. The word derives from the Latin adventus, “arrival” (Oxford English Dictionary), and heralds the celebration of the birth of Jesus as well as anticipates the future second coming. In other words, it’s all about the waiting. Have I mentioned that patience is not my strong suit?

“Sometimes I feel guilty for how lucky I am,” I told a friend. “I’m not sure many people would consider you all that lucky,” she said in response. She immediately apologized for her remark, but I did not take offense. What it made me think about is this: my happiness probably won’t look like yours, but that doesn’t make it any less real.