And so, we wait… still!

The catalyst for re-starting my blog was born from the doodles I do. Last year I got an iPad and an apple pencil and discovered the utter joy that is procreate! Since then I've done various doodles at different times, I did one a day with a reflection during Lent, I did some inspired by the words of slaves during Black History Month, and I thought I would do something in Advent.

Except... the thing is, if you work in a Church, Advent is busy. Like, really busy. With socially distanced outdoor winter fairs, masked up outdoor carol services, the usual services and events, and creating and editing lots of online content for children and those who can't make it to Church at the moment, it's looking increasingly like spending 45 minutes each day doing an advent doodle is just kind of impossible.

So if I'm so busy, why would I re-start my blog?! Surely that's counter productive? Well... yes. And quite frankly I may well fail completely and this will be digital evidence of my "oh this seems like a good idea" attitude that leads to three well curated bits, and then nothing... tumbleweed.

But I wanted to do something. I wanted to shake off a bit of the fog, do something creative, and waffle on about the world around us.

The other day I was scrolling through emails, looking for something someone had sent me last year and I stumbled upon a conversation about masks. I'd ordered some Christmas tree masks, and was chatting about them. The whole conversation was like, "It was £6, which seems a bit wasteful seeing as I'll never use it again, but it is cute!"

Seeing as I'll never use it again! The hope! The optimism! The foolishness?

I genuinely thought that the £6 I spent on a festive face mask was a waste because it would get shoved in the box with the Christmas decs and in 10 years I'd find it, like a modern day archaeologist and reminisce about how weird that Covid Christmas was. How wrong I was.

We're back to mandatory mask wearing in shops and to be honest, I'm glad we are. For me it is all about keeping people safe, and I'll wear a mask for forever if that's what it takes; however I cannot underestimate the strain this is having on us all. I’m glad we are required to wear masks again, I’m not glad of the reason.

Another masked Christmas - or potentially worse restrictions - another year will ring in, 2022 and we are still not shot of this horrendous virus. The ongoing trauma of living in this horrendous time is wearing us all down, the losses, the pain, the fear. We’re all still waiting for this to end.

Advent is a time of waiting, we await the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and we await his coming again in glory; I know we’re all absolutely done with waiting, but Advent waiting is a joyful waiting with an ending that we know will come.

While I don’t know when the masks will finally go in the bin, or in fact if they ever will, I know that I can trust in the incarnation and in Christ’s coming again.

While we wait, for the end of the pandemic, for safe easing of restrictions, for the coming of Christmas, I hope that we can find joy in the things around us now, even if it is in the smallest thing.