Day 10 - #holy

The peace of a winter lake with pipe in hand is unmatched by any other experience I've had in this life thus far. The woody sweetness of tobacco smoke that floats out of the bowl of my Churchwarden wafts hurriedly away in the brisk December wind. The warmth of the Carolina briar in my hand is my only respite from the bitterness of the abnormally frosty Alabama air.

Advent is a time of preparation. Much like preparing a pipe to be lit. It takes time, intentionality. The leaves must be packed just right for maximum flavor, for the oakey goodness to fully release. The flame must pull through the leaves just so for a lasting smoke.

Oh how easy it is to find holiness in the mundane if you're willing to look. And yet I'm so guilty of finding the Holy mundane. Refusing to let myself be immersed in the mystery of the Holy Other and instead seeking out otherness and wrapping it in a cloak of holiness. But perhaps both approaches are okay. Maybe otherness and the Other may inform each other...at least for my sake. 

So I'll pack myself just right and breath in the flames made ever warmer by the surrounding cold. I'll let my Advent be one of reconciling the other and Other. And I'll smoke my pipe by a chilly lake, enjoying the earthy fragrance of my own preparation.

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