just the beginning

this is the first image in my new calendar "salt of the earth". (virginia wieringa, "joy to the world" acrylic & collage) what i love is that it is organized by liturgy featuring fine art and the symbolic color for that season. for example, advent shows november 27-december 24th...flip...christmas from december 25-january 5...flip...epiphany january 6-28...it's a new way of seeing 2012. instead of just showing month to month, it helps me to remember what meanings are going on year-round and be mindful of the deeper rhythm. (ever had a sneaking suspicion there was more to something only to go years and years of your life and finally find out that it's true!?) the page that begins tomorrow only has 12 days (or even just 7 like holy week) while others span three months. "are you ready for christmas?" we ask as we push toward the 25th and then collapse, considering the holiday over. but really it's only just begun. i like giving celebrations time to spread themselves out. i've often felt like a proverbial fish trying to swim against the popular culture's stream; like something of a lavish eternal week-long feast was planted deep within me and i just can't be content with the fast-food version of the 60-second drive-up window. so this calendar is actually a very important tool of courage for me. the colors represented right now are gold and white, like Easter, reminding us that the birth of Jesus was also only the beginning of *"a dangerous and difficult pilgrimage through suffering and death to new life". (*see also the art of john august swanson's "flight into egypt", serigraph.) let's get that feast underway...