Pause for Wonder
An Introduction to the Advent Reflections for 2025
“… gives me pause for wonder, grants further cause for prayer.”
Donald S. Murray, “The Cragsman’s Prayer”
AUDIO VERSION
Somedays - if you are lucky - you get a three turtle day.
When the winter gives way to spring, and the ground begins to soften, soon the turtles emerge. I begin to see them in late March or early April, depending on how warm it is. I am not sure how they decide to come up from their winter sleep (which is called “brumation,” not technically hibernating, but it gets the job done.) But when I am running in the woods where I live in Eastern Virginia, they start appearing, and some days you find them everywhere.
This past summer was particularly good for seeing turtles. Our family has a group chat, and I filled it with pictures and videos of the turtles I encountered (much to everyone’s delight). “Look everyone! TURTLES.” My social media posts were mainly of turtles, with occasional pictures of our dog. Family and friends would send me pictures of turtles they had seen.
When I am in the middle of a run, and I see a turtle – I have a moment of indecision. I should keep running. I don’t need to take a break right now. I don’t have time for this.
But then another part of me – the better, wiser part – says: Stop and look at this turtle. Say hello. Take a picture.
So I stop. I pause and look closely at this turtle, and I feel wonder. And this makes me very happy.
“The contemplative is not one who discovers secrets no one knows, but one who is swept into ecstasy by what everyone knows.”
– A Carthusian monk, quoted in Dearest Freshness Deep Down Things: A Introduction to the Philosophy of Being, by Pierre-Marie Emonet
Here are some amazing turtles from this summer.
And look at the names of some of these turtles from Virginia!
· Eastern Painted Turtle
· Spotted Turtle
· Northern Red-bellied Cooter
· Woodland Box Turtle
· Red-eared Slider
· Southeastern Mud Turtle
· North American Snapping Turtle
(This last one is basically a dragon in the shape of a turtle.)
Every year I go running in the woods, and every year I see the turtles. And every year I am surprised, and delighted, and grateful to see them once more.
St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote:
“He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows.”
Beginnings that have no end.
So it is Advent, and so we begin again. This journey toward God moves us from beginning to beginning, as the year turns and the Earth moves around the sun, and now the Christian calendar returns to the beginning of it all.
The readings and liturgy of Advent are filled with invitations to wake up, to see clearly, to return to our lives with hope and courage and openness.
We are invited to look around and see and pay attention! Everywhere we walk, something is waiting. Some days it is a turtle. Sometimes – a trinity of turtles. They have slept through the winter, and have come back to the surface, and walked all day – slowly, steadily, carefully, until we crossed paths.
God is waiting for us in the same way – out there, ready to meet us.
We begin again.
We move from beginning to beginning.
Each Wednesday during Advent I will post a reflection. This is my sixth year writing these reflections for this season. They reflect my reading and study through the year, what books, music, poems and films have touched me, as well as my own teaching and work. As always, I will try not to repeat myself from years before – but I find myself returning constantly to the themes of hope, endurance, small acts of love, and finding God in your actual, daily life.
Please know of my prayers for you this Advent season. I hope you find something useful in these reflections. Please feel free to share them with anyone you think might enjoy them.
See you Wednesday.