Tag Archives: advent

The Fourth Candle: Messiah and the Power of Music

For whatever reason, it’s not often these days that anybody tries to convert me to Christianity. I try not to take it personally. For any evangelists out there interested in taking advice from this heathen UU wizard, I’ll share a secret: there’s a guy out there who successfully converts me a few times every year.Continue reading “The Fourth Candle: Messiah and the Power of Music”

Together we Carry the Light

Last year, in a podcast episode, I read an email nearly in its entirety. Its author was to be my (then) three-year-old son’s new preschool teacher. Kellie knew her from childhood, the Waldorf community being the modest size that ti is, but this was my first impression. She was writing to introduce herself and alsoContinue reading “Together we Carry the Light”

Get in the Glow

Even in my most cynical and misanthropic years, I could never bring myself to hate them Christmas lights. Just look at them!I acknowledge well that there are reasons, even if I don’t agree with them, to take shots at many of the other aspects of our varied traditions, but in all seriousness, why would decoratingContinue reading “Get in the Glow”

Being Anti-Anti-Christmas

I keep catching myself turning into an old man. To be more specific, I keep catching myself doing and (most often) thinking things that a short time ago I would have attributed only to the mindset of a geezer. It’s worse than just being conscious of it, too. Each time I catch myself, I discoverContinue reading “Being Anti-Anti-Christmas”

Happy Winter Solstice – Love, Your Wizard

New year’s day might be a week and a half away, but the blessed sun cares nothing for our petty calendars. To the sun, the new year just started – just now. Happy 2016, everybody. Happy solstice. May your year to come be filled with blessings, May what curses come bring with them learning, May your joyContinue reading “Happy Winter Solstice – Love, Your Wizard”

Holidays Suck, and Why That’s a Good Thing

Welcome to Advent. The most important thing about a year goes entirely unspoken because it is so intrinsically obvious: humans didn’t make it. We do our math and choose cultural markers and use these tools to impose our calendars, but the year does not set the terms of our rotation about the benevolent sun. The year isContinue reading “Holidays Suck, and Why That’s a Good Thing”