Something is tapping, pounding
on the door, the windows and the roof.
It wants in, is insistent!
It is the rain.

Something jostles the bare tree limbs
siren slow moans in the vents
demanding entrance in the night!
It is the wind.

Something hurries down the streets
brushing aside the lowering winter sun
scuffling its way into forgotten places – it comes!
It is darkness and winter’s cold.

We clothe ourselves against the rain and strong winds
put up cheerful lights to dispel an entreating darkness
but hope alone will bear our salvation –
it is coat and hat; it is lamp to light the way.

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Portland, Oregon – December 2, 2017

The Advent season, in the Christian tradition, is a season of waiting in anticipation of the coming of the messiah.  It is a remembering of the events leading up to the birth of Jesus.  But, the underlying impetus of the season is the virtue of hope – hope that something good is coming, something to save, to redeem, to heal, to forgive.  Hope is a virtue not confined to any spiritual tradition but is essential to all and, in these troubling times, is a paramount virtue to have and hold.  It is the antithesis to cynicism, fear and anger.