{"id":639,"date":"2019-12-02T11:54:51","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T17:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/?p=639"},"modified":"2019-12-02T11:57:26","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T17:57:26","slug":"advent-calendar-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ldinmanbooks.com\/index.php\/2019\/12\/02\/advent-calendar-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent calendar #1, 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To celebrate this website’s second year, I’m going to do a little Advent calendar of things that give me pleasure and gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year ago I started building this website in preparation for launching my first novel in what I hoped and planned to be a series; a year later, I have launched the book, finished an interstitial novella and put it into edits, and started on the second full-length novel which I hope to finish over the course of the next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s been an intense and busy year on all fronts: but this, I hope, will be a relaxing exercise for me, as sometimes I get hung up on trying to remember what Significant Thing I had planned to blog about some time but didn’t write down. These little Advent windows are not going to be significant of anything in particular. I suppose that’s a measure of what the theme of this year has turned out to be: that even launching a book, significant as that is in my own life, is a granulation of little acts, little pleasures and struggles. And one might as well take note of them and do them justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today is a two-fer, since I didn’t have this idea until last night and did not post anything on December 1. First, for those of you who like this sort of thing: Check out The Advent Project<\/a>, an annual compendium put together by the staff at Biola University. Every morning there’s a Bible reading, a poem, a piece of art, a piece of music, a collect, and a meditation. Because these things are gathered from all over, many perspectives are represented, which frankly relaxes me because I know I don’t have to like it all. I signed up for this last year, and enjoyed it and the group’s Lent Project enough that I stayed subscribed this year. It adds dimension to my morning ritual of tea on the couch — especially when the mornings are so dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n