A Guiding Star
Advent Reflections - Uncovering Fresh Wisdom in the Christmas Story
You can read the first two chapters of the book further down this page.
The Christmas story is one many of us know well, but what if there was a new way to understand it? What if a two-thousand-year-old tale has enduring relevance for our lives today?
Join me for gentle, yet heart-warming journey through Advent. With a combination of deep reflection and light-hearted re-telling that makes links between this story and other wisdom traditions, each short, daily reflection is sure to get you contemplating a classic tale in a fresh, inspiring way.
Whether you are atheist or agnostic, Christian or a believer from another faith, spiritual but not religious, or just tired of hearing the same old story, there is something here for you.
You can read the first two chapters below.
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Read the beginning of the book here...
Introduction - How to Read this Book
This book began as a series of emails sent to a group of friends and clients one Advent. For the next few years, I added several more articles each Advent season, and I always felt a tingle of excitement as I set out to create and evolve this series. There is something beautiful about reflecting on the age-old story of Christmas, and that beauty has always been further enhanced by the grateful messages I receive each year. A number of readers have shared with me their own insights prompted by what they have read, and they’ve invited me to share in their own struggles and beautiful moments of settling back to a place of peace.
People seem to love the feelings brought up by and evoked in these messages. My Advent series became a tradition…and now a book!
Whether you are atheist, agnostic, lapsed or practising Christian, believer from any faith or none, 'spiritual but not religious’, not particularly interested, or really just prefer chocolate during Advent, the Christmas story is a beautiful parable, rich with inspiration when we take the time to look.
The familiarity of this story can mean that we don’t really give it much attention as we rush around shopping and arranging family gatherings, feeling hopeful that Christmas will live up to our expectations.
But I want to explore the way in which this story points us to a universal wisdom that can inspire and support us in many areas of our lives. It can help us to create a world of greater connection, rather than division. It’s a chance to reflect on who we really are, and how we can be creators of peace in a chaotic, confusing world; a chance to see how much more is possible than we might previously have thought.
I invite you to find a quiet moment each day to read the short musings that I have combined to create this book . Universal wisdom is alive for us all when we learn to listen within ourselves for insights that speak to our unique situations. That wisdom is alive and fresh, more relevant to our lives than anything that has already been created into form – spoken or written down. The form that I have created here – this book – is my interpretation of what I have seen for myself. Even as it goes to print, I’m having new insights and would be writing it a little differently. Don’t take it too seriously – simply notice what you hear for yourself in and beyond these words. This is an invitation to look at the old stories afresh and see how they speak to you. Listen for your own wisdom, whispering to you from within these pages.
Tell me what they inspire in you. I would love to hear from you.
With love and light to you and all those in your life this Advent,
Lizzie
Day 1 – What is the Good News?
How do you capture the wind on the water?
How do you count all the stars in the sky?
How can you measure the love of a mother?
Or how can you write down a baby’s first cry?[LP7]
John Rutter – ‘Candlelight Carol’
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When I first shared these reflections as emails, I included a link to John Rutter’s Candlelight Carol, which, for me, quickly became the beautiful tune behind these Advent reflections. (You can find it on YouTube.) It so wonderfully captures the mystery within the most beautiful and treasured experiences in life. The expansive, unfathomable something, that feeling of being ‘home’ as a sensation only felt or intuited from deep within, never measured or captured in words. Truly the secret that cannot be told.
That something is evident throughout the Christmas story. In this tale there are plenty of clues to the truth of who we really are and what is possible for us.
Good news is hard to come by these days, or so it would seem. The world seems to stagger from one crisis to the next without leaving the previous ones behind. Looking for good news in the world of form is always going to leave us disappointed.
All spiritual teaching points us in a completely different direction. One that, by definition, can’t be grasped by the intellect. Our intellectual minds don’t like to be excluded from the party, but as you read these daily writings, do your best to set reason to one side. Don’t listen and read for sense, understanding, or logic to work out what I really mean. Listen inside of you for a sense of Truth, for that something that resonates within you.
In the Christmas story, within the ordinary, the simple and the unimpressive, lie the seeds of something beautiful, transformative, meaningful and unique, whether you choose to name it or not.
The same is true for us all, in our own ordinary lives. This story points to the perfect simplicity to be found in engaging with each present moment of life.
That’s the only way you will ever find the true Good News.
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