Images for the weeks past as we approach a week of Advent Joy. Remembering resources that point to joy as resistance. Recognizing the ways in which so many are tired and in need of rest. Although we may not have as been as much on the go, we are harboring the anxieties and spinning of uncertainty. COVID numbers in Maryland have only been rising.

It’s been a year since I first stood on the corner of Little Patuxent Parkway holding a balloon and hoping to spark joy for those driving by. Little did I know how much we would need joy and would have to work to do so in the months that were to come. I give thanks for this balloon pastor journey. And I wonder aloud as to how joy would take the lead as a new year unfolds. Sometimes it bursts on the scene, and sometimes joy is a conscious choice– a refusal for despair to fully have its way.

May joy be yours today and every day–a glimmer, a phonecall, a walk in the coming winter wind.