Christmas Is Coming - Do Nothing (Stephen Cottrell)

I hit the ground running with goal 55 (Do an Advent observance). My list started on Advent Sunday, and so this goal did, too. This is one of my fluffier goals, in that nobody but I will know that I've done it properly, and in that I have allowed myself a certain amount of latitude that can't really be quantified.

So far, however, my Advent observance is looking something like this: Give up buying things for myself, other than essential food and toiletries; do a lectio divina on one of the day's readings; do the Advent examen on wildgodcomm. To this, I have been waiting to add: read an Advent book.

However, Advent as the world in general understands it begins on 1st December, and so does this little book, which I picked up at the Christian bookshop. It calls itself 'an Advent Calendar with a difference', the difference being that instead of titchy little pictures or chocolate, it contains prompts to think about or to do things.

I certainly won't post my response to every day's prompt, not least because I won't necessarily have internet access all December. I will put a few up, however, starting with today's, which, apart from some thoughts on Christmas cards, asks me to make a Christmas wishlist of things to believe in and to hope for.

For Christmas, I would like:

- wisdom to discern between physical exhaustion and mental reluctance
- the government to sort itself out and actually make society fair
- one or other of the political parties to get itself [back] to a state where I can bring myself to vote for it
- world peace (I know, I know... But I would.)
- to remember always that life is good
- the load to even out a little at work
- to learn to listen
- to recognise others as people, always
- good health and happiness for those I love, and for them to find what they were born to do, and have the tools to do it