Keeping Advent as Advent is never easy. Half the world is intent on leaping straight into full-on Christmas razzmatazz when the last Halloween mask and firework have barely been packed away. This year I’m taking the view that ‘less is better,’ and have chosen Ian Adam’s latest book of reflections: Some Small Heaven- seeking Light in Winter, Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, (Canterbury Press) as my Advent reading.
It’s a similar format to his earlier collection Wilderness Taunts. A slim volume, (that’s a plus!), it combines black and white images with a series of reflections written in real time during the previous Christmas season. Each reflection ends with a prayer word in keeping with the book’s quest to discover the light within the darkness of winter. As the author says, ‘within all our winters – to find some small heaven each day, even when life comes at us tough, hard and bleak.’
If it’s anything like Ian’s previous reflections, I know to expect a realistic look at a season that as he states in the introduction ‘ tests our hope and resolve’, (no overdose of sugary-sweet effusiveness here), yet which at the same time supports and inspires me to recognise the gifts present in this waiting time.
I’m looking forward to the journey.
