One week to go

There is one week to go and the semester, my first semester in seminary, will be over. It is hard to believe that just a few months ago I packed my car and drove up to Berkeley with so many hopes, dreams, fears, and a lovely icon of the BVM in my front seat.

I'm thinking of Mary as the days begin to point to the Nativity of our Lord and wonder what Mary must have been thinking. She said, yes! Yes to the unknown. Yes to potential ridicule and danger. Yes to hope.

All of us, not only seminarians, have an opportunity to say yes to God. We can say YES to the unknown, undefined, uncharted future that is before us. We can say yes to the hope that is within us. Yes to paradox. We can say yes to kindness, yes to that space that allows those who are different from us and ourselves to be... to just be. Being. Pausing. Allowing someone that is in a hurry to pass, savoring the space that allows the expelled breath, that sigh of satisfaction, that nod to the Christ reflected and born again in the mind and heart.

I say yes to late night readings, yes to the moments of laughter, yes to preping for finals, yes to new ways of thinking, yes to new friends, yes to doing it differently, yes to preserving what is best, yes to making new traditions, and, YES to Advent's great pause. Everything seems the same, but everthing has changed.