So far Advent has been a success. Trying to find something to celebrate everyday, or figuring out how to weave that day's celebration into a longer story of black vs white, light vs. dark, nature and cycles, whilst being mindful of telling the Axial Easter story in a few months-- i.e. leaving black and white behind, leaving the hard fixed walls of this life, and moving towards Rumi's Guest House.
Of course, part of this is me telling myself these stories, working out my understanding of the world around us.

This daily exercise, too, has forced me to go a little slower with J-- I am always going just a little bit slower!-- and to see how much he is changing, once again. He is clearly working so hard on his grammar, and coordination, and listening, repeating what I say, dancing so beautifully to the music he hears.

I see that I will never be done learning that whenever I think I've just gotten it all figured out, everything will change again. The beauty and the challenge of parenting.