TexasGirl Photography

“The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and courage in the darkness could we but see; and to see, we have only to look.” — Fra Angelico

It’s the third Sunday of Advent: on the wreath, it’s the pink candle; in church, it’s time for joy! We know it as Gaudete Sunday, “gaudete” meaning “rejoice” in Latin. Joy and hope weave together: hope placed, through faith, in God, brings a joy that the world can’t take away from you, one that survives the storms of life, one that doesn’t rely upon everything being hunky dory. A lot of people use the word joy interchangeably with the word happy, but happiness is something different, something more shallow, something rooted in circumstances, something that can easily, and quickly, fade away.

I found this on a website: “Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the center of the self.” You might be able to buy happiness (ok, you CAN – come on, everybody knows that feeling, hey yay look at this awesome thing I just got!), but joy is free, if you’re willing to do a little work. And joy sticks around.

St Paul tells us in Romans 12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient under trial, persevere in prayer.” I have been in this place; I remain in this place. My heart is at its most peaceful, its greatest state of happiness, when my daughter is at home, when we are all together as a family. This is the circumstance that I long for, the very circumstance that underwent a drastic change in 2018, a change that most certainly did not bring happiness to our house. And yet, we live our days in joy, and hope, because there is no earthly power that can take those away.

None of us are guaranteed an easy life; everybody’s road is fraught with pebbles, gravel, quicksand, boulders, even earthquakes and avalanches. But no matter what gets thrown at you, there can still be hope, and there can still be rejoicing! If you have one tiny spark of hope within your heart: rejoice! Nurture it, visit it every day. Advent is a time of waiting, waiting with action – and we do wait. I am waiting. My heart is waiting. Preparing. Joyfully hoping for all of the good things that I know will one day arrive.

“Even though the celebration of Christmas is exploited for business profit and used for selfish purposes; even though the meaning of Christmas is often corrupted; in spite of all this, we all feel the impulse at this time to think of others, to show love to others, to be there for others. This itself shows what this joy of anticipation is. It is the feeling of human solidarity, the exulting joy in one another, the certainty of mutual love.” — Christmas Joy, Emmy Arnold

All photographs are film, from a variety of Christmases past.