Advent is intended to be about longing and hope, and yet our culture runs over that quiet spirit with a kind of happiness that can be hard and exhausting, especially for people who are going through hard times. Grief is especially acute during Advent. Traditions can bring pain along with the memories. Financial hardship, loneliness, or heartbreak make it hard to join in to the jolly and jingle of the world. But there is still light and room for you, even as the nights are long.
On Sunday, December 18, BPC has two special events that would be hopeful for anyone, but are particularly geared toward those whose Christmas might be more blue than marshmallow white. In the morning, at 10:15am, poet Kathleen O’Toole will lead an adult Sunday School class about Poetry and Grief that will inspire and heal. The class will be held in the BPC Library and on Zoom.
And in the evening, our Longest Night service of Light and Hope will take place in the Meeting House at 7:30pm.
If you have a friend or neighbor who might need a different kind of gathering this year, please invite them.
Kathleen O’Toole has braided an active public life in community organizing with writing. Her poems appear widely in magazines and journals. Her latest collection, This Far, was released in October 2019.