We're in Advent, a season of longing and preparation for the coming of light. Also, as it happens this year on this day, we have a full moon. It rises in the east and sets in the west.
When the moon is full its rising always means the sun is setting. Its setting always means the sun is rising. Two completely round orbs balanced at either end of our world. Together they mark one full day and orient us in both time and direction.
Here's a hymn about longing and preparation and paying attention. About blessings we experience practicing celestial navigation.
In the winter's early darkness,
through the days of failing light,
travelers may delay a journey
or may learn to read the night.
Turning on a steady axis,
cold and burning, black and bright,
heaven tells a faithful story
of the coming of the Light.
As we recognize the patterns
and we turn a certain way,
even when the path is darkest,
we are faced to greet the day.
(you can sing this to the same tune as Come Thou Long Expected Jesus)
