We are rolling along with our Advent theme song, People Look East.
The first verse goes:
People, look east. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way.
The First week of Advent we had unexpected, but delightful, house guests. That was incredibly fun! Love, the guest was closer than we thought! We set aside our regular plans and thoroughly enjoyed our guests.
The second verse goes:
Furrows, be glad. Though earth is bare,
One more seed is planted there:
Give up your strength the seed to nourish,
That in course the flower may flourish.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the rose, is on the way.
This Sunday, I came down with a fever that has totally sapped my strength. The Emperor took off today to help me recover. In fact, he is off at the toy store with all six Zoomlians so they can buy presents for each other. He's my hero...
I'm supposed to be writing the Christmas letter right now, but, as I was checking the blog for what we did this year, I noticed that I hadn't posted for a while. I'm not dilly dallying around to avoid writing the letter. Really.
I find it interesting that this is the first year in a long time I have felt ready for Advent. Not ready in the sense of having everything ready, by any means! Just that I felt ready. Maybe God's using this Advent to get me ready, get my heart ready for Christmas. All the losses this year may have cracked my heart open enough for Him to have room to work. What I mostly feel now is joy.
I did not start Advent with a grand spiritual plan of how I was going to prepare my heart for Christmas, but God has stepped in with a better plan than I could have imagined.
Here is a video. The video itself is very amateurish, but I love the way he sings it. There's a bright and beautiful spirit there that seems to mean the words. This is also the arrangement I like best (by Eleanor Farjeon). My copy is sung by the angelic Amy White (not a high and inaccessible kind of angelic, her voice seems more rich and golden) but I can't find a You Tube of it. You can hear the sample if you click the link.
2 comments:
Thanks! I love both versions. I didn't know Eleanor Farjeon did music also. My sisters and I love Martin Pippin and The Glass Slipper of hers. Must say, I love your blog (the only one I regularly read). Although we send our 3 to Catholic schools, you clue me in on good things to do with them when they are at home. I'm a little sentimental this Advent (OK a lot more) b/c my younger sister was recently diagnosed with liver cancer. (you can read her trials on CaringBridge dot org under Julie Sparks). God bless you and your family this Advent!
I'm so sorry about your sister! The kids and I will pray for her this Advent.
I had no idea that Eleanor Farjeon had done anything else, so I will definitely look up those books. I looked on Wikipedia and she also wrote another favorite hymn of mine, Morning Has Broken (although the tune is older)!
Thanks so much for your encouragement on the blog!
Post a Comment