South West Vermont

I can’t explain my love for Advent and the Advent wreath. It’s an incredible time of anticipation and the slow-burning candles of the Advent wreath are the silent messengers commanding that I wait and savor the moment.

The candles say to me, “Enjoy this week. This week is an event in and of itself with meaning and significance. Don’t become so caught up in Christmas that you miss out on the GIFT of anticipating it and preparing for it.”

After leaving the Catholic church for the Baptist gang, I began to really miss the Advent wreath. It just wasn’t as prominent and meaningful as in the old Catholic days. Naturally when we began meeting in our home and basically found ourselves having to redefine church, the Advent wreath was sorely missed.

Two years ago I took action. I bought a cheap wreath and some even cheaper candles and carefully balanced the candles on the wreath to make a lame, super-duper lame that is, Advent wreath. It wasn’t much to look at, but it felt better than nothing.

This year we have a nice little home to decorate and have to buy a small tree that will sit on a strand in order to keep it away from the claws, paws, and jaws of our rabbits. This means that we need to beef up the other decorations. In particular, I’m talking about the Advent Wreath.

It was hard enough to find an Advent Wreath in the Philly metro area. How much more so in hippy/crunchy, Eastern-mystic, post-Christian, don’t-have-many-shopping-options Vermont. Finding an Advent wreath in Vermont seemed as likely as finding an optimistic Philadelphia sports fan.

Originally Published atEd’s inamirrordimly.com.