by Megan Buhrmann

The season of Advent is here, and with it another opportunity to reflect. Except… I wasn’t really feeling it this year, to be honest. It feels as if I’ve had way too much time to reflect in the past months, and the thought of mandated reflection had me doing a bit of internal foot-tapping. I’m sure I am not the only one who has been willing the remaining weeks of this difficult year to be over.

Struggling to bring the right heart to Advent, I decided to visit the traditional Advent themes in this very untraditional year. Peace, tick, never more necessary. We are all stressed to the limit. Love – tick. I’ve never loved my family more. The less I’m able to spontaneously see them the more I cherish them. The joy of Advent, I decided, would also be no issue. Joy seems infinitely more precious this year because it is rarer – even as moments of real joy, the birth of friend’s babies, engagement announcements are overshadowed by lockdown restrictions. But we’ve definitely improved as a nation in the joy-noticing department. I realise how many joy-bringing little things I took for granted; that surprise gift from friends abroad, my flatmate making me a delicious lasagne, watching my Primary Twos role-play this new Covid reality… these small things fill my heart to the brim.