This evening we celebrated the beginning of Advent with a small advent spiral. We were graced with a lovely dusting of snow, just enough to set off the green boughs. I am refreshed and centered from the peaceful lighting of the candles. I feel thankful to have wonderful people in our community to celebrate this with.
You may be familiar with the advent tradition of lighting a candle for each Sunday in advent. One candle tonight, next Sunday adding another candle and so on. We also enjoy a verse at this time.
I thought perhaps I would share with you a poem that our family enjoys this time of year. We add a stanza of the poem each Sunday.
The Washing of the Feet
by Christian Morgenstern
I thank you, silent stone on earth,
and gently lean to you below.
My life as plant I owe to you.
I thank you, grounds and meadows green
and bend down close to you below.
My life as animal depends on you.
I thank you animal, and plant and stone,
and bow down thankfully to you below.
You helped me to become all three.
And we thank you, you child of man,
And kneel in reverence before you:
only because you are, we are.
** our family leaves this verse out
From all of God's (Earth's) creation, simple
or so manifold, rise thanks.
In thankfulness all being intertwines.
** we say earth instead of God
As you can see from the poem, the four weeks of advent can celebrate the kingdoms of nature: stone, plant, animal and human. If you have a nature or seasonal table you can celebrate each "kingdom" cumulatively by placing stones, shells and crystals there the first week. For the second week you might add some little plant, evergreen boughs or moss. The third week perhaps some small animals, wool, felt or wood (I have a very small plastic cow that I like to add). The fourth week is often when a manger scene might be added. In our house we add a small angel and a tiny baby in a walnut shell that Cliona's teacher in Eugene gave us.
We also have some blue fabric pined on the wall behind our nature table. Each day of advent a small golden star appears in the "sky." Depending on the age and temperament of your children you may explain this to them and invite them to participate, or you might add the stars each night and just let them observe it at their own pace. We have only added one star this year and Cliona wanted to be involved, but in past years she really didn't seem very interested!
This is the third year we will be celebrating advent, each year we grow a bit and add things. I invite you to find a way to celebrate this special time of year with your family.
An excerpt from Inner Aspect of the Social Question by Rudolf Stiener
"Christian Morgenstern, the poet, has crystalised in beautiful verses (which I have often spoken of to our friends in connection with a certain chapter in St. John's Gospel) the experience which comes over us when we allow the ranking of the kingdoms of Nature to work on our minds. Then we can say: “The plant gazes on the lifeless realm of the minerals. ... Certainly it must feel itself to stand higher in the order of Nature than the mere lifeless minerals.” But then the plant, gazing on the mineral which prepares the ground for it, will be impelled also to say: “I certainly stand higher than you in the ranks of beings, but it is to you, since I grow out of you, that I am indebted for my existence. In thankfulness I bow before the ground which lies beneath me.” And so, again, must we conceive the experience of the animals in relation to the plants, and again in the human realm, where man in the course of his evolution is raised to a higher level. He must gaze down with awe and reverence at that which in a certain sense stands beneath him — not merely formulating all this intellectually, but so that the weaving pulse of life in all things becomes for him a real cosmic soul-experience."
