Advent Music, 2014

This week I've finally gotten around to working on the playlist for Advent this year.

The opening song for our 2012 playlist is "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus," McCracken/Webb version.  One of my favorite elements of this particular rendition is the intertwining of "Come, thou long awaited Emmanuel" with "Hallelujah." The longing accompanied by rejoicing: Advent. After two straight years I couldn't imagine the beginning of an Advent playlist with any other track.

I did include it again, but in conforming to the season of Advent I buried it instead of leading with it.

You know...so I would have to wait for it.

But I wasn't waiting earlier this week. As I was still putting this year's music together, I listened to last year's opening track on repeat and stumbled over the first verse, "…let us find our rest in thee."

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” ― Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions of Saint Augustine

It has been a hectic week, not least on the inside. And I have been thinking about how there is chaos and then there is Chaos. Things can be chaotic, but I bring Chaos with me: one of the kinds of restlessness I think Augustine was talking about.

Years ago, a friend of mine with young children experimented by putting earplugs in her ears for a few days. When she could only hear herself, she said better understood how much of the chaos was within. For some reason I think of that story often.

“The punishment of every disordered mind is its own disorder.” ― Augustine

I am not currently wearing earplugs, but I am one-third of the way through a "lighthouse year."As I recently told J, I mostly keep my own company; and at this point I'm getting pretty sick of myself. I am discouraged by my own sin and weakness and don't have really have distractions to speak of. As a result this Advent, more than Advents of years past, finds me lamenting more and longing in different ways. I think that's shaped my playlist more than a little bit.

Purple	Trevor Borden
Black, Blue	The Avett Brothers
River	Indigo Girls
Knocking at Your Door	Bill Malonee
Winter Grace	Harvey Reid
The Dark Island	The Kepple Family Band
Below My Feet	Mumford and Sons
Manzanitas	Trevor Borden
Wait For the Lord	Taize
Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus	McCracken & Webb
Zechariah and the Least Expected Places	So Elated
Gabriel's Message	Sting
Ave Maria	Frank Sinatra
O Come O Come Emmanuel	Trace Bundy
Awake My Soul	Mumford and Sons
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence	Red Mountain Church
The Longing	All Sons and Daughters
Christ Be With Me	The Brilliance
O Holy Night	Trace Bundy

Here it is on grooveshark and spotify, in case you want to give it a listen. Not all of the tracks are available on each, but it's close to complete (we bought or already owned rights to these). 

And so here we are at Advent 11, finally with a playlist to groove to, wash dishes to and sit with or drive with. I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to Christmas…but am not ready for it, not quite yet. Most of the gifts are ready and many other tasks have been ticked off…I am grateful for the calendar space to sit a while. And long for our future. Colossians 1 is a good place for this, I think.

“You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.” 

― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

Pictures soon! We've been a-adventuring this past month...

#TBT- Three days in Edinburgh

Today during school I took the kids into town. We made our weekly stop at the library and then walked over to the University Chapel on Princeton's campus. I recently discovered that they have free half-hour concerts on Thursdays, and I thought it would be a good field trip. Music. Culture. Sitting in a European-Cathedral type space for half an hour (somehow they have even captured the smell, although it is less than 100 years old).

Inside the Princeton University "chapel"

The short walk to the chapel through an urban environment in bracing cold reminded me a great deal of Edinburgh, which is where we were one year ago today. We were able to spend 2 days exploring with just the four (instead of the 34).

The cool weather and biting wind, the gray skies matched by gray buildings, seemingly reflecting one another, and a town that's smaller than one thinks it ought to be-- all surrounded by beautiful countryside--well, today for the first time I thought Princeton and Edinburgh had more than historical Presbyterianism in common. Which is a hopeful thing, because I love Edinburgh. And I have only ever been there in the wintertime.

Cold, Dark, Gray, and yet welcoming and very dear. Something to ponder over the months ahead.

Greyfriars Kirkyard

Greyfriars Bobby

Have you ever read the children's book Greyfriars Bobby? After we arrived and found that our flat was about a block from Greyfriars Church and the statue of the little dog Bobby, we added it to the kids' Kindle library. They read it while we were there. Books! In a life where ounces and pounds were a critical currency, the paperless books were a lifesaver for all.



Edinburgh Castle was another thing that we really wanted to share with the kids. J and I have been there together once before on a dark, romantic December night with the weather as wild as my hopes for the future.

Part of the castle grounds is a little chapel named St. Margaret's. In this chapel back in 1997 we were admiring the interior when a security guard offered to turn around his collar and do the service right then. (Was he reading my mind?)


What a gift it was to be back nearly 16 years later with our four ninjas.

While at the castle, we also were able to witness a 21-gun salute in honor of Prince Charles' 65th birthday. And to see some older cannon.

It was so cold while we watched the salute. We fed the kids shortbreads we had brought along in our bags to keep them happy and somewhat still. 

Edinburgh was a little bit of something old, something new: We had never been to the National Museum of Scotland, and it was FABULOUS for the kids. I wish we could have had three days to spend there. As it is, our visit of one morning is one of the highlights of the trip. It had rooms tucked away within exhibits for kids to play and work out their energy. 

Like a race car driving simulation.

Or a place to rebuild broken pottery like an archaeologist.

Or to dress up in period costumes and dance to period music.

We weren't all tourists all the time, though. After walking about for the first parts of our two days, we rented Brave (what else?!) for the kids to watch while we worked on bookkeeping for the program, entering receipts, working on budgets, and grading. And fielding a few "help-me" e-mails and phone calls from students on their pilgrimages, and praying a lot that all would be well with them. And it was.

Well, it WAS Scotland... 

On our last morning, we packed up in our practiced style--everyone shouldering their own load, J and I each pulling a suitcase in tow. We made our way to Waverly Station and caught our train back to London...

…but not before we tried to recreate a train-station photo from Dec. 1997:

On that train ride south I first started considering the changing seasons in a more deeply theological sense which continues to this day. I have found myself thinking of it often, especially as I make the drive back and forth to Princeton. Thinking back to Edinburgh and the cold has helped me to consider winter and Princeton in a more hopeful light, and for that I am grateful. How could I not be? Such gifts we have been given.

And then, as if by magic, tonight we got our first snow.

Photo Shoot with Pixie

Too often, when I am sorting through photos of outings or events, I find that Pixie is missing. Whether that is because she is off pursuing her own interests, or because she has some camera-loving siblings, I am not sure.

This afternoon, just before it got dark (!) I asked her whether she would be willing to participate in a photo shoot. I was so glad when she agreed. We went tearing around all over the backyard (although we started with her in a tree).

It was so much fun!

She had lots of energy and did a lot of running around. Later, when I showed her the photos, I think she was surprised. She doesn't see herself the way these photos show her. Maybe that's the way with girls her age?

But in some of them, she looks exactly the way I always see her in my mind.

Lovely.

I told her so.

I'm going to keep telling her so.

This shot captured her two-year-old self perfectly, although in a much larger body. Where did my two-year-old go?:

In other news, Pixie has joined a swim team. She's currently at her third practice. It's really hard for her, and something that she's not very good at yet. Even so she continues to be up for it with an attitude that really impresses me. She is so brave and I am proud of her. And she is getting stronger every day.

I am really looking forward to getting to know this young lady better and better as she grows up! And tonight, I am grateful for this year that has let us slow down and have time to hang out. She's very fun to be around.

Just loving on Pixie today. Beautiful inside and out!

Advent Music

The weather outside right now seems perfect for revisiting my Advent Playlist: the bright light of the past few days has been drastically dimmed by the clouds and wind. It feels like the lights have gone off. This time on Monday, I was sitting in the yard chatting on the phone and getting a sunburn. Now I am sitting in a room--walled with windows--that is illuminated by the glow of my computer screen. It is midday and dark.

Last night, I got an e-mail from a friend (10th Century Church, below) asking whether I have an Advent playlist. I have a couple of these musical lists for the season. We have one from 2011 that's a King's College-Cambridge type, and one from 2012 that's my most recent "official" one.

Last year, mid-Advent we had our continental transition; and instead of spending time and energy to build a new playlist, we repurposed the one from 2012. My real playlist for Advent 2013 was the rumble of the métropolitain and the tap-tapping of my crutches on cobbles, tile and concrete; the musical soundtracks of iPad apps the children favored, and the silence of cold rain that (not unlike a puritan child) could be seen but not heard.

And so many other silences.

Paradoxically, during a season that looks for and celebrates light coming out of darkness, I remember advent last year as a time that felt like the lights were going out. The curtain dropping. Not unlike today.

I have been thinking about the seasons. I have been thinking about them a lot. I have been thinking about them as something new to enjoy in a foreign-yet-familar land, and I have been thinking of them in relation to seasons of my own life. I have been thinking of fruitfulness and death and resurrection. I have a harder time with fall than with the other three seasons, but I am thinking about that too. Which is good, I suppose, because it's fully here.

It looks like today will be the last warm day we have. Indian summer is over. Doubtless we will have sunshine--and many leaves have yet to fall. But Summer is no longer "beginning to give up her fight."And we are only a month and a day away from Advent 2014--its own season, coming just this one time although echoed in the advents before and the advents to come.

I am grateful for the message from my friend. It was a reminder of goodness past and goodness to come: and of hardships, too, and light from darkness and advent banners and lessons learned and grace.   And of singing songs no matter the weight of one's own heart (there are different kinds of songs).

And so now I look forward to Advent. I even have begun to think with some eagerness about building a new playlist for Advent 2014. Which songs will push back the silence and draw us home?

#TBT--Friends and Europe Semester

As I have mentioned, we are trying to slow things down around this year. I would like to be more intentional about how I spend my time and how I communicate, especially with the ninjas/niñim (the kids). I also would like to "get caught up" with life--does that ever happen?--and as such have started sorting through photographs that I haven't seen since I took them...sometime over the past three years.

It's great fun and longing and loneliness and gratefulness to see all of these photos again. One benefit is that I came across a photo I took early on in Athens, just because it made me think of a friend.  And then I remembered that I took several of those while in Greece, missing my friends and being reminded of them in so many mundane moments. And I remember how grateful I was for any word from them, and how waking up to a message (written and sent in deepest night, Athens-time) would reel me back in, remind me that I am in fact a vine tendril or branch of something bigger, and that my identity was so much more than the work I was doing in the moment. It was good work, and I am incredibly grateful to have had it. It was also a gift to be tangibly reminded that my identity extended far beyond its borders; its triumphs and failures.

I am still grateful for that. And for how they continue to be my friends and care for me (each in her own way) now,  during what sometimes feels a bit like a long, slow walk in the desert after last year's Exodus.

And so, rejoicing in each of my friends, I post "their" photos here for #TBT (Throwback Thursday, Mimi!). And I would remind them that I mentioned each of these locations last September, challenging them to guess who was who. :)

Pixie pretending to be the photo's subject, instead of the yellow bag,
so that the shopkeeper would let me take the photo. Athens Plaka.

Typewriter (one of many) at the Monastiraki flea market

Delphi olives. (Telescope Cafe, Delphi)

Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Apostles.
Roman Agora, Athens. 10th Century.

Xoriguer Gin Distillery, Port Mahon.

Philadelphia -- Guest Post by Pixie

Last month, we went to Philadelphia for the day.

It was fun to go back to the city we lived in when J proposed, and where we were early marrieds. During those years, we often took visiting family and friends to tour the historical downtown. This time, we took the 4 Ninjas! So fun.

After we returned home, the three "olders" each wrote about the day. And so, with her permission, I share Pixie's write-up as a guest blog post. She chose the photos to accompany.

Our Trip to Philadelphia

by Pixie

Philadelphia was amazing! I really enjoyed seeing the Liberty Bell, which was a lot smaller than I expected. The line was really long, but we were in it for less than 15 minutes! Security was really stiff there, though. Actually, it was strict everywhere we went!

Afterwards, we went out and got Philly Cheese Steaks at Jim's on South Street. They were sooo good! (Booo Pat's). Mine was just plain steak, though--no cheese sauce! With it, I had a Coke--but it almost broke my heart when Meggie asked me to get a Barq's. She was so cute and sweet!

By then I really had to use the restroom, so we went back to a museum and used their restrooms. When we finished there was this really cool brick tunnel that was a cellar in colonial days. 

The Second Bank of the United States, which houses a collection of portraits by Charles Willson Peale. The portraits were amazing...and the cellar pretty cool, too.

Then my dad remembered a big dilemma.

We had to pick up our tickets for the Independence Hall tour 45 minutes in advance! But is was only 25 minutes until our tour. Dad ran to the ticket booth while we walked to the Hall. He got the tickets, but just barely. We met him in the security line for the tours. 

He had run all the way there! Again, super-stiff security, but this time I was mostly glad we had our tickets. We had to wait outside for a bit, but it was worth it. I really enjoyed the guide's talk that happened before the tour. It was all about the history of Independence. 

There were only three items that were proved to have been there at the Constitutional Convention. The first is a painting on the wall of the Pennsylvania coat of arms. This is a reminder that Independence Hall is actually the Pennsylvania State House. 

The second item is the chair George Washington sat in as president of the convention. He also sat there while the Constitution was being signed. 

The third item is the Syng Inkstand that was used to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We went to see it afterwards, along with the copy of the Declaration of Independence that was read to the people. 

After all that cool stuff, we started heading back towards the Independence Welcome Center. We planned to watch a short film, and then head home. But guess what? Our parents took us on a carriage ride!

It was really fun, and our guide was nice, too. He kept pointing out fun stuff...and we KNEW they were fun...because we had already done them! We got dropped off at the visitor center, which was nice, because it saved us a LOT of walking.

The film was an interesting documentary about young people during the revolution. It was good to relax there, and in the car on the way home. We were tired but happy. What a good day!