Today we light the pink candle and begin a week reflecting on joy. Where will you seek joy this week?
Yesterday, the twins were tasked with cleaning the epic mess they made in the playroom. It was meant to be a punishment, but I swear those two can make anything joy-filled. As they worked, they turned it into a game. Every toy had a story as it moved from its old home to its new proper place. “Come with me, Mr. Dinosaur! Let’s go on an adventure. Hurry, there is a tornado coming for you. Whoosh!”
One twin ran to me after a couple hours of “cleaning” and said “Mom, don’t ever worry about the playroom again! We love organizing.” This way of “organizing” is so efficient that they worked all day and had to woke up and get right back to working on it this morning. I’m really curious if this playroom will ever be cleaned. Though it is making progress.
One bonus of cleaning is that they are finding all sorts of toys they lost a long time ago. “Mom, I found my whistle!” (Oh my ears) “Mom, remember when we lost all the Christmas books you had piled up in the playroom closet? We found one!” (Finally!) There’s a lot of joy to be had in each and every discovery as they move around the pile of crumpled drawings and dozens of boxes they pilfered from the recycling.
Listening to them “clean” for the last day or so has given me quite the lesson in how one can find really find joy in everything – even the most basic and boring tasks.
Today is Guadete Sunday. We light the pink candle and we reflect on joy… particularly the joy that comes with welcoming the Christ-child in just a couple more weeks. It’s the joy that John hints about in today’s Gospel when he tells of the one who is to come.
Let our prayer this week be graced with the feeling of joy even when we least expect it. May our hearts be filled with the joy that comes with anticipation, anticipation of a better world just around the corner.
Enjoy this one page, front and back, advent guide for your week ahead.
