November Diary article by Christina Rees

November: the harvest is over, the leaves are falling and the air is sharp. It is now less than two months to Christmas, and the advertisers have already started compelling us to spend, spend, spend.

Children are beginning to get excited as they see pictures of idyllic Christmas scenes on television and rows of enticing, new, must-have toys stacked along the aisles of supermarkets. Parents are feeling even more pressured as they juggle work, the extra shopping and all the planning and preparations for the coming holiday season. Is it the turn to visit your parents or mine? What should we do about the pets/the presents/Great Aunt Emily? How will we manage to pay for everything..?

November: a time of preparation, anticipation and reflection. Many of us will attend the Remembrance Day Service in our parish church. In the two minutes of silence we will give thanks for our freedom and remember the sacrifice of those who lost their lives fighting for it. We will also remember the loved ones we have lost, those family members and friends who are no longer here, but who still fill our hearts and minds. We will look into the eyes of those sitting near us and perhaps catch a glimpse of a still raw grief, an enduring love for someone lost to them, a wrestling with the recognition of their own mortality.

In the Christian calendar, November is the start of Advent, a time for pausing and preparing for the coming of Jesus, not as the baby in the manger, but as the longed for Messiah, the bringer of truth, light and love, the Prince of Peace: the One who can save us from evil, the One who can save us from ourselves.

My prayer for you – for us all – is that in the midst of our busyness we will take the time to check our bearings, re-calibrate our focus and direction, reconnect with what matters most to us and listen to the urgings of our hearts and souls. If we manage to do that, we may be better able to approach the preparations for Christmas with genuine excitement and joy.

Christina Rees