It’s technically not winter yet, though my steaming teapot has grown frost on the inside of our cold kitchen windows. It’s freezing out there. And it’s dark; deeply dark. It’s fifteen-and-a-half-hours-a-day dark. But despite the frost, the freezing winds, and the endless dark, I do love this season.

It’s the season of Advent, for me and for so many people. Between Thanksgiving and the New Year, FORTY significant holidays are celebrated by religions, cultures, and nations around the world. We’re all waiting for something great.

While I drink tea, soaking up the long Advent nights through my frosty windows, I am going to think about hope, peace, joy, and love. I believe the mysteries of this wintery world are deep and wonderful. There’s so much I don’t know. And the world seems on the brink. Yet, in this deep dark, we’re all waiting for something great.

(More to come each week this Advent: Part 1 on Hope, Part 2 on Peace, Part 3 on Joy, and Part 4 on Joy.)