Blitzing by Advent to Christmas

Here we sit at what is, in the secular world, the end of the year; yet for those in the Christian faith, it is the beginning of a new one. These worlds collide at Thanksgiving, when the secular world explodes into the frenzy of the holiday trifecta (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years), and the Christian world begins its preparation for the Advent of Christ Incarnate.

I have noticed in these past years that even the Christian world blitzes right into the joyous season of Christmas, totally bypassing the preparatory weeks of Advent. Christmas lights go up on houses, trees are purchased and decorated, parties and gatherings are crammed into those few weeks before December 25. What a pity.

Advent is a beautiful time of year. The season is heralded in by the Feast of St. Andrew (November 30). As it continues for four weeks before Christmas, the season is filled with both a call to joyous hope of mercy and deliverance, and an introspective call to penance.

Advent connects the Biblical past of Old Testament prophecies to the birth of the promised Redeemer. The liturgy throughout these weeks is rich with reminders of patient suffering and holy hope. It is a wonderful time to tap into activities to broaden our understanding and place our focus on the upcoming Christmas season. In fact, there are so many activities it can be difficult to choose one. Many can be done as individuals; some are better suited for family or church community consideration. These are some of my favorites:

The St. Andrew Novena (Christmas Novena)
St. Andrew's feast day on November 30 begins the Christmas Novena. A full discussion and the novena itself can be found here. I like this novena as it encompasses the entirety of Advent - a daily reminder of how Our Lord was born into this world. It helps me cope with many of the problems I encounter each day.

Advent Wreaths 
One of the most popular activities to bring the sense of Advent to life is the Advent Wreath. Greens arranged in the form of a wreath and adorned with four candles, three purple and one rose, are lit one week at a time beginning the First Sunday of Advent. A new one is lit each Sunday, with the rose candle reserved for the Third Sunday. Another terrific explanation of the symbolism, as well as the prayers for the ceremony can be found at this website. The Advent Wreath and the prayers bring the family together in preparation for Christmas.

The Jesse Tree and Advent Calendars
The Jesse Tree is another one of my favorite Advent activities for families and communities. There are many different kits available for purchase, but I made my own from felt and is displayed as a wall hanging. It is a favorite because it ties the Old Testament prophecies to the Birth of Christ, as well as tracing Christ's ancestral roots, beginning with Creation. Symbols are placed on the tree each day starting December 1, and is accompanied by a Scriptural passage. CatholicCulture.org has a nice discussion about it, as well as directions for creating your own Jesse Tree. Click here to explore this site.

Along similar lines to the Jesse Tree is the Advent Calendar. This Advent activity, in my opinion, has been co-opted by the secular world to the point that it has really lost its spiritual significance. Google "Advent Calendar" and a host of options are at your fingertips: from children's Lego versions with a Star Wars theme, to an adult version involving alcohol, the Advent Calendar is my least favorite activity.

There are many choices we can make as individuals, families and faith communities to grow and deepen our preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas. If any of these activities pique your interest, go for it! Lessons learned along the way will make the Christmas season - which begins on December 25 - more profound.

Living Intentionally

I had the best of intentions when I started a blog three years ago. As a matter of fact, I had visualized an amazing career as a blogger, writing hundreds of interesting stories about everything in life. I envisioned my daily routine: up each morning early, laptop at the ready, my fingers flowing easily and quickly across the keyboard creating stories, opinion pieces and thoughts to be shared to the hundreds, no, thousands of readers who would eagerly await my next post.

I even pictured myself going through all the comments people would make for each article, taking the positive and negative feedback, you know, being totally professional in addressing replies. It was going to be great as my voice joined other prominent voices in cyberspace to enlighten and delight the world.

Reality quickly set in as I discovered that few, if anyone, bothered to read my posts. Even my closest family and friends managed to find other things to do than read my blog. I will admit that I was consistent for one month only; not enough time to build much of anything, I know. Somehow I had just expected overnight success. When it did not happen, I became frustrated to the point that I was ready to give it up.

It is little wonder then, that my posts for 2015 averaged one every other month. Not ready to throw in the towel, I recommitted myself, so that by the end of 2016 I had published a whopping 30 posts, thanks in part to a writing challenge I joined. This sort of thing was a nice prompt for me, but it became a source of anxiety and frustration mostly because I didn't care very much for some of the prompts (write about the first object you see, which happened to be a salt shaker), so writing became less fun and more like a chore.

Here I am at the close of 2017 and this post on "Living Intentionally" has yet to be completed even though I began it in March. What happened? Where did I get so far off track? I still got up early, but wasn't writing. Instead, I had subscribed to countless personal development, writing and career sites, all of which were well and good, with the intention of using the information to move my career forward faster than I had been seeing it move. I downloaded books, signed up for courses and I still was not getting anywhere. What I discovered, though, was at the end of two hours - very early hours - my mind had been bombarded with strategies, hints, inspirations about creating a better me, as well as a better writer. What it didn't do was move me to action.

Half way through the year, with no successes to bolster me, I managed to find ways to not even get out of bed early. It wasn't that I didn't think about it - goodness knows I was awake - I thought about getting up to start writing or working on priorities for my health coach business, but then thought it was pointless because I had nothing to write, and it was far too early to deal with my health coach business. I convinced myself that I would be able to write later in the day or reach out to my clients -when I might be more inspired.

Rather than focusing on how this year has been a waste and that I am an utter failure, I have been thinking about what needs to happen to get me out of this funk. As a health and wellness coach, I know that there is a strong, almost indestructible connection between the body, the mind and our financial states. There are times when we just need to take that step back (or outside of ourselves) and figure out where the derailment occurred.

For me, it is that I had no clear idea about what I expected from myself. I had these great visual dreams but didn't believe that they could ever be realized. I know now that my dreams of being a successful health coach, joining with other coaches to truly "Get America Healthy," as well as an exceptional writer are within my grasp. I just need to do the work. The first thing is to create consistency in my actions that lasts longer than a month.

Seasonal Changes and Mind Games

Does anyone else think that the change from summer to autumn is the most drastic of the seasonal changes we experience?

I was driving late yesterday afternoon and I could not help but be struck at the "all of a sudden" differences I saw and felt as I made my way home. A sea of red tail lights from the traffic slowly moving with me stood out in contrast to the wave of white headlights approaching from the opposite direction....it was barely 4 pm. Surrounding us all, dusk, with its rich hues of purple created by the sun setting through both thick and thin cloud layers, rapidly disappeared as night fell.

The busy surface streets, lined with shopping centers, brilliantly lit with a variety of colored lights displaying restaurant names, gas stations, grocery stores and pharmacies, became brighter as the darkness increased. Residential neighborhoods, illuminated by streetlights, were also starting to glow as residents turned on lights both inside and outside their homes.

Here and there people dressed in light coats and hats -- resilent North-westerners armed with an umbrella, a flashlight or a dog, walked along the sidewalks not bothered by the occasional drizzle. Some, the more athletically determined I suppose, dressed in running shorts and shirts, passed and out distanced the walkers with their rhythmic and almost effortless strides. Still the darkness silently enveloped us.

This growing lack of light did not stop many people from continuing their work-related activities either, be that yard clean up, garage cleaning, or in many instances, putting up Christmas decorations. Yes, Christmas decorations. As November moves out and December moves in, we enter the Holiday Trifecta: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's celebrations.

What happened to those long, lazy days of spring and summer? The hours of daylight beginning around 5 am and lingering until 9 pm or later? Not that I utilized the gift, mind you, but that flexibility to be able to be outside to enjoy a sunrise or a sunset was sort of always there should I make use of the opportunity. The busyness of the days, it seemed, could begin or settle like waves gently lapping on the shore.

The shortened days of autumn and winter -- especially as the year closes -- bring an almost frantic state of mind as the holiday activities loom ever-closer on the daily horizon. Morning light delays its arrival which means I am less inclined to move from the warmth and reverie of bed. Once up and moving, the race to complete daily tasks before early sunsets is much more like trying to get to  safety as waves crash the shore ahead of a coastal storm. The added holiday activities, simple ones, really, like decorating our home, the office, just seem to add to the frenzy.

It really is an interesting contrast that we talk about the "lazy" days of spring and summer, in spite of the fact that the days appear longer; while the shortened days of autumn and early winter are crammed with activity that puts an ant farm to shame. It is the same 24 hours. Nothing more. Nothing less. The challenge is making the most of the daily gift we are freely given, which for me means getting out of the mind-game of light and darkness and just doing what needs to be done.

In the Clinic Building Relationships

Remember the scene in You've Got Mail when Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), having put Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) out of business, visits her after learning that she is sick, and the conversation turns to relationships? The conversation went like this:

Joe Fox:  It wasn't...personal.
Kathleen Kelly: What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn't personal to you. But is was personal to me. It's "personal" to a lot of people. And what's so wrong with being personal, anyway?
Joe Fox: Uh, nothing.
Kathleen Kelly: Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.

This is at the heart of all things....being personal. In the clinic we see this every day. Going to the doctor is of all things personal, right? Patients new to the practices may, in a matter of a half hour's acquaintance, be asked to get undressed or otherwise expose parts of their body to near strangers....zooming from, "Nice to meet you," to "Let's take a look at that sore on your___________. Would you please take off your shirt and pants?" Pretty darn personal.

In today's healthcare culture, the trend seems to be heavily focused on the "science" of medicine. We are blessed to be living in an age where technology advances enable practitioners to identify with greater clarity not only a patient's medical problem or condition, but also hone in on the severity of the condition. A cough can be a cough, or it can be the symptom of something more serious, which might be identified by imaging studies. The ability to use this technology gives medical doctors information that helps them better treat their patients' medical problems. It seems that the advances in both technology and drug therapy should improve the quality of medicine. Or not.

Certainly the ability to diagnose and treat conditions has improved and lives are saved, for which we should be grateful. The price paid for these advances can have an unseen but perhaps a negative effect. We see this every day in the clinic: Imaging reports from X-rays, CT, MRI tests, lab results and consult reports flood the office fax machine, mail, and email. Our providers spend much time each day reviewing data and planning the next steps in treating the patients who come through our doors. Ours is a small office; I can only imagine what the larger clinics must see, and wonder how the providers deal with the tsunami of paperwork in a practice panel of 2000 or more patients. Time consuming tasks that either bring the provider into the office hours ahead of clinic time to complete, or keep them hours beyond the time the clinic closes can negatively impact both quality and work satisfaction.

All the paperwork and reports needing to be completed for specialist referrals, insurance companies and the government pull doctors, therapists, counselors away from the "art" of medicine; the intangible something that should really be at the heart of working in a medical setting. Asking a physician or nurse why they chose the profession, the most common answer is not because they enjoy reading medical test results, completing forms to justify medical treatment for a patient, or even the money. The most common reason, almost to a person, is that they want to serve others by using their knowledge and skill to improve their patients' health and wellbeing, to treat them when they are not feeling well and to be there ready to help when needed.

So for what it is worth, patients don't know or remember that our doctors spend a great deal of time behind the scenes shuffling papers and jumping through hoops to get services or prescriptions needed in patient treatment. This is science and now bureauracy of medicine. Patients do know and remember, though, how they felt after seeing the doctor; the time spent in conversation with them; the caring touch received on physical examination or even in a handshake or hug; the tone of their voice; a smile. This is the art of medicine. It is building the relationship and feeling valued. It begins, grows and thrives by first being personal.

The Unintended Realities of Getting a Song Stuck in Your Head

It is probably a safe bet that most of us, at one time or another, have heard a song only to have the melody stick in our heads for hours (or maybe days) on end. It is the sort of thing that can drive you nuts.

This very thing happened to me the other day. Paper Moon found its way into my brain after seeing a clip from A Streetcar Named Desire.....it tormented me for three days. It was while driving home from work with the melody playing over and over in my mind, I began singing along to the tune running through my head.

Then I started to think about the lyrics I was singing, trying to figure out what (if anything) this song meant.

For those who do not know the lyrics or have even heard the song, Paper Moon was written by the song team Harold Arlen (music) and E. Y. Harburg (lyrics), with Billy Rose in 1933. The song has been recorded many times in a variety of arrangements by such notable singers as Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. The verses are as follows:

It's only a paper moon
Floating over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me

It's only a canvas sky
Hanging over a muslin tree
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me

It's a Barnum and Bailey world
Just a phony as it can be
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.

Many people have looked into the meaning of the song, and there are a few theories out there. For a broader discussion on this  click here

For me, though, my perspective is quite different. As most speculate that the lyrics are driven to explain the relationships we experience on a human level, be that between a man and a woman, or, in the case of the feature movie Paper Moon with Ryan and Tatum O'Neal, parent and child, or in A Streetcar Named Desire, looking back on our life and getting back to those places and things that gave us happiness, I look at it in that most important relationship between us and God. What if we look at this as if our Creator speaking to us through these verses?

Could God be telling us that everything we see and do in this life is nothing without Him? Is there an emptiness, a shallowness, a facade in our existence without knowing and loving God and His loving us in return? How many of us are truly ever happy and content believing that what we have is the result solely on what we do and create?

Our modern world is filled with the "famous and beautiful people," who spend time and money in the attempt to stay "famous and beautiful." Can they truly be happy? Is their life one of simplicity and reality, or do they live in a world of make believe?

The world is also filled with those who have amassed fortunes and then spend their time and effort trying to keep it. Can they truly be content? Is their life one of fulfillment, or do they live in a world of make believe?

Or, those people whose primary focus is on gaining more and more power, then having to spend yet greater energy staying there. Can they be truly happy and content? Is their life one of continuous inner peace, or is their life like a Barnum and Bailey circus?

The refrain breaks the verses, so instead of God speaking to us about the triviality of life without Him, from our perspective, in the refrain we acknowledge the idea that living without the mantle of God's love and guidance, we are destined to spend our lives in in a world of shadows and illusions:

Without your love
It's a honey-tonk parade
Without your love
It's a melody played in a penny arcade

So for what is worth, that irritating event when a tune plays over and over in my mind may not be so bad after all. I can't say for certain if the writers had any other intention than to amuse the masses with a cute little tune and clever lyrics. Isn't it funny, though, how the audience reacts to the piece and takes away something that touches their own life? The unintended reality of this common human experience for me has been the realization that my life would really be less full, less meaningful and less real without the Greater Good. If you are interested in hearing a version of the song -- performed by the fantastic Ella Fitzgerald, you can find it here.

In the Clinic with Exercise

One thing about it, you have to love the habits of health and the ripple effect they have on those around you.

In the office we try as often as possible to model those activities that support good health and overall wellbeing. This "do-as-I-do" attitude lends credibility to the things our providers tell their patients when discussing medical problems related to lifestyle choices, such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure and the like, but is often easier said than done.

To facilitate this healthy focus, I purchased a Nike FuelBand several years ago and was immediately depressed by the paltry number of steps I achieved in the course of a day. I found that by 5 pm (when the clinic closed), I failed to come close to my goal of 10,000 steps a day, which meant that I had to find time to add those 6000-7000 more steps I needed to track before midnight.

In our small office it is difficult to hide much of anything and my comments about the lack of progress I was making soon became a topic of general conversation. Our ever-energetic and enthusiastic medical assistant Andrew caught quite an interest in my healthy endeavor and also decided to jump on the 10,000 step per day bandwagon.

Armed with his own Fuelband, he started tracking his steps and we enjoyed comparing notes throughout the day as to our step-status. Eventually this led to a friendly competition to see who could clock the most steps before quitting time. As late afternoon approached, we would call out to each other as we passed through the clinic our current count, and there were times when we were quite literally within dozens of steps of each other. All of this produced a frantic push on the one of us behind at that point to be as active as possible, and I have to admit that I found myself stepping in place while I waited for a fax to come through or some such other menial task.

Not to be outdone, Andrew decided that he would build himself a workstation where he could stand to do his work, and keep in "perpetual motion" as he answered phones, completed forms or did computer work. Mary, our administrative assistant, soon joined in the fray, creating her own workstation where she had the flexibility to either sit or stand. She soon upped the ante, and with her FitBit firmly planted on her wrist, twice a day both she and Andrew took time to complete the "7 Minute Workout" from an app Mary had downloaded on her phone. Attempts, by the way, to get Jeannine involved in this, were hit and miss -- but this is the topic for another story.

Since I still have too much pride to lend myself to doing crunches on the floor in front of a few onlookers, I had to figure out something else to improve my FuelBand numbers. It was at this point that I made the decision to haul myself out of the comfortable reverie of slumber and begin my quest for 10,000 steps at 5:30 in the morning.

Puffed up like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, I began greeting Andrew as he entered the office each morning at 8:15 with my 3000+ steps already showing on my FuelBand. My good-natured friend would with humor acknowledge his deficit and the day would move forward.

All of this effort on healthy movement lasted for about two months. Not sure how or why it happened, but we all sort of lost our competitive spirit. We still get plenty of movement in during the course of the day, but the teasing and tormenting has fallen by the wayside.

Most of us in the clinic still embrace the habit of healthy movement. Andrew has replaced his office chair with a huge blue ball -- core training at its best during office hours. For me, I can still find time to run in place as I wait for a fax or am taking a lengthy phone call, but I now find that the best movement I get seems to be when I have waited too long to use the restroom and, at the point of almost no return, am sometimes forced to dance around waiting for the room to be less occupied.

Best Party Ever

By far, the best party ever was "The Run for the Roses" party we hosted in May, and it is one that I would do again or attend in a heartbeat.

Normally, we host events for our church group, and there is no particular theme: we just want to bring together our faith community of friends for informal fun and fellowship. An April trip through Kentucky, though, with a stop at Churchill Downs, inspired my husband and me to plan a party with a Kentucky Derby theme.

It may have been learning that there was really something to "the most exciting two minutes in sports," or it may have been a greater understanding of the history and tradition of the Derby -- I don't know -- we just came back home and the idea just grew.

The Kentucky Derby is always on the first Saturday in May, so with literally less than an month to pull this off, we went to work. Online invitations made it easy to create a theme-appropriate evite. Less easy was organizing how and what we would do once the party gathered. Wanting to have our guests get into the fun of the party, our first idea was to encourage anyone interested in placing a "bet" to download our version of the "racing form," complete it, and send it back before the actual race. There would be prizes for anyone whose horse won -- or who actually scored the trifecta: all three horses in winning order.

As fashion is as big a deal at the Derby as the race itself, guests were invited to dress Derby-style in any way shape or form they chose. A simple (or not so simple hat), elaborate dresses and suits, ties and the like were encouraged, and the guests did not disappoint. I am sorry to say that we did not take photos of our company as they arrived, because it was delightful to see how our group of about a dozen embraced the challenge. My favorite, if I had one, was our friend Dennis who came decked out in a white suit, black string tie and a hat -- clearly the image of Col. Sanders!

For the bill of fare, our potluck assortment included many bourbon-inspired dishes: fruit salad with a bourbon dressing, BBQ ribs, a spicy sausage casserole, Benedictine spread and, of course, Derby Pie.

No Derby event would be complete without the famous Mint Julep, and we did not overlook this important detail. As we are not cocktail drinkers, we had all the ingredients necessary for the potent potable, along with the recipe. Our guests were encouraged to build their own, or just use the pre-mixed Mint Julep we found at the local liquor store.

Completing our party activities were two multiple choice trivia contests: one on the Derby itself and the other on Kentucky history (who would have thought that Johnny Depp was born in Kentucky??). Prizes for winners of these contests, as well as for the race itself included a Southern Living magazine, a bag of glazed pecans, and a bottle of Kentucky bourbon.

The highlight, though, was our Kentucky Bourbon tasting. Anyone who was of a mind could bring a bottle of their favorite Kentucky bourbon for a little competition, and our party closed with our spirited (literally) group enjoying conversation on family, work, life and the Derby.

So for what it is worth, our spur-of-the-moment, themed party was a great success. Bringing together our friends is always fun, and while we do not need a reason to host such gatherings, this one will be remembered for a long, long time. Next year? Well perhaps we will all be inspired to put together a Triple Crown event!