I love the readings for Advent more, I think, than any other readings of the year.
Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights;look to the east and see your children
gathered from the east and the west
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that they are remembered by God.
I take these words to heart today, as my own children are so far-flung. It is my youngest daughter's eighteenth birthday, which seems . . . impossible, I guess is the word I'm looking for here?
The time goes as fast as that child whirling through our unfurnished house, the day we arrived in it.
Anyway. We did some celebrating last week while she was home, and we're still in the process of tracking down a banjo, which is the main thing she wanted for her birthday. Might be a birthday-and-Christmas gift at this rate. We never did that when children were younger, but now . . . yeah. If they want a big-ticket item, it tends to span multiple gift-giving occasions.
So today we are thinking of her and wishing we could be with her, but in the meantime, the sun is shining here, and we'll be on our way out to Mass shortly.
Going for simplicity today, in my new-to-me Pact shift dress with camel boots and long cardigan.
I like this dress a lot. As I've said before, it's a nice heavy organic cotton knit, very comfortable and soft. This color purple feels better to me than just about any other shade, other than periwinkle blue. The grape color is suited to my skin tone, and I feel good in it. I think I'm actually going to outbox my darker-purple patterned dress, which I thought I loved –– it was the first thing I put on this morning, and something in me just went nope. Partly it was because I had to wear a camisole under it, and I just wasn't feeling the complication of layers like that. And then the dress just felt small. I mean, it fits fine, and is a forgiving dress for weight fluctuations, but it just felt restrictive somehow. AND I wasn't feeling the darker color.
As the year winds down, and I'm gearing up for a no-buy year, I find that although I've been buying a lot of stuff to fill in, I'm also paying attention to what I need to unload: what don't I reach for? what doesn't feel perfect when I put it on? Those are the questions I ask. I'm especially asking them of anything that's not a natural fiber. The patterned dress in question is rayon knit, and although it is soft and lovely, if I don't reach for it regularly and don't feel instantly great when I put it on . . . and it's not cotton, wool, linen, or bamboo . . . then those are some real strikes against it. It's been an item I've professed to love, yet I don't reach for it regularly. So, experimentally anyway, into the outbox with it. This helps me narrow and hone the focus in my wardrobe, so that while I have items across the colors I like to wear, more and more I have only items I like to wear in those colors. Oddly, I think this will help my no-buy commitment rather than undermining it (and I hope that someone else will get wear out of clothes that aren't working for me, yet remain lovely and in good shape).
Anyway, this Pact dress is a dress I actively want to wear and can see myself wearing outside Advent and Lent. I feel good in it today, and I'm grateful to have it. It didn't work for somebody else, but happily it is working for me.
Time to take Dora out for a runaround before crating her while we go to Mass.