O come, O come, Emanuel, and ransom captive Israel …
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadow put to flight …
***
Instead of Christmas, I’m thinking about a season I like even more,
The season of Advent,
The season of what’s coming
The season of anticipation and longing.
The season of hunger.
***
I hunger for hunger
And thirst for thirst,
Which I don’t feel often enough.
So many seem enslaved by their hungering and thirsting
And will do anything to serve and salve them.
Instead, bow to the absence,
Develop an appetite for hunger.
***
Hunger feels clean, light,
Purifying,
Arouses the urge to satisfy,
But not the necessity.
Waiting can be pleasurable,
Emptiness is its own fulfillment.
If you aren’t compelled to sate your hunger,
You are, in your hungry moments,
Free.
***
When not driven,
You’re in the driver’s seat.
***
Appetite annoys,
Distracts,
A curse that controls.
Give hunger its due,
Let it be prolonged,
Like climax,
Exciting in its anticipation,
A burning that leads to greater pleasure,
Rendering the transient ending anti-climactic.
***
Siddhartha’s three powers:
I can think, I can fast, and I can wait.
Waiting is where power lies,
Where freedom lies.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst,
For they shall be satisfied,
But not just yet.
***
To be hungry,
To be thirsty,
To be aroused,
Is to be alive,
Is to be fully human.
***
Some pre-empt their hunger,
Fearing the feeling,
Avoiding the void,
Neutralizing into neutral,
But unhurried,
Waiting makes the satisfying more satisfying,
A declaration of independence
From appetite’s slavery.
***
Fasting is freeing,
Why break-fast is the most satisfying meal,
Why religion urges self-sacrifice.
In fasting, we are momentarily unleashed,
Just as slowing down frees us from passing time,
And the oppression of marking it.
***
Advent is no countdown to Christmas,
But a celebration of hunger and longing,
The season of anticipation.
Thinking,
Fasting,
Waiting.
Come, Emanuel, and ransom captive Israel.
But not just yet.
***
Something is coming,
Something great,
Something worth the wait.