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The
Pink Room: Thoughts About Intentional Living
Chapter
17/ Advent.
Part
3 (Previous post contain the previous chapters.)
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Last
Christmas I attended Mass with my parents. The homily was about messes. The
priest talked about all kinds of messes that occurred at, and since, the first
Christmas. The manager was a trough and was messy, the birth itself was messy,
traveling with animals—messy; the cave they were in, and the family dynamics of
a fiancé with a pregnant betrothed; so many things were oh so very very messy.
He
said, even today families and kids and holidays are generally messy. This
shouldn’t be surprising to us because of the precedent but we typically are.
It
is true; often relationships and families are messy. I can attest. I shared a
bedroom with my sister all my childhood, through high school. Messy.
I
would get frustrated because, sure, I might have a few piles but there was
order. Normally, everything of mine was put away. There was stuff everywhere. All.
The. Time. And it drove me crazy. When my sister went to college I used her bed
as a couch. While she was on campus and away from home I had a couch with great
pillows in my bedroom and when she was home--everything changed.
While
she was away—“it” all got put away. No more mess or clutter and I think “maybe
mom will finally believe me,” the part where I told her that my sister was the
messy one.
Most
importantly, the Pepto-pink walls saw their last days. The eerie glow of the
pink finally got handled. My friend Shari and I (who are painting pals—we’ve
painted so many walls together it is beyond counting) we moved everything to the middle of the room,
broke the light fixture, and covered all the walls with white. I didn’t want ANY
color after the pink. I was fatigued by so many years of the bright glowing reddish-deek-dark-pink;
it covered everything--and the ceiling, all deep reddish pink.
White
seemed so clean, simple, and open after that, I could breathe. And everything
matched it.
After
we painted, the room seemed twice as big. The white seemed so nice—all fresh
and new. It may have something to do
with why white is my favorite color/non-color.
Advent
wreaths often have a white, in the middle. The candle is for Christmas Day. Celebrating
the promise of Christ—the Christ candle; the new covenant beginning with the
person of Christ, a new beginning.
New
beginnings bring joy and excitement—it is a blank page and full of possibility.
I am sure that is how the Israel felt about the arrival of baby Jesus.
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We all are blessed by new starts and
anticipate great things with new things. We are in the midst of the greatest
unfolding. The white advent candle was lit but that one can’t be put out.
