"And the morning lasted all day"

Since I have been so silent this week during which we celebrated the magnificent Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, today's lovely Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and tomorrow's feast of St. Lucy, I am posting this week's Friday traditio a bit early. Though, at least in liturgical terms, with the sun being down, it is Friday.

As we continue clearing the Lord's path by making our way through Advent, the season, not of "Wait for it," but of Waiting...for...Him... I am thinking a lot about how hope is not merely some Deus ex machina, but, while often (even usually) surprising, it arises from life, from our circumstances. In my view, if this is not so, then we might as well be waiting for Godot. The photograph below was created and posted by Ben Bell a number of years ago now, but it probably communicates what I am trying to write more clearly than words:

It's been cold and, through last weekend here in Utah, grey (it's bright and cold this week). Anyway, "Life in a Northern Town" by The Dream Academy has been running around in my brain a good bit. Like "Doot, Doot" by Freur, it's a song that I have always liked. I guess, at least for me, a bit of heart music. Besides, I usually like days when it seems like 9:30 AM all day.

They sat on the stony ground/
And he took a cigarette out/
And everyone else came down to listen