Pictures for Pam, Day 32: Macro Monday 2.0: Nature's Chrismon (+3 insets)

(+3 insets) (View large for the best impact!)

I kept waking up last night thinking about this week's Macro Monday theme: Advent. That's kind of a tough subject for me because although I am very spiritual, I am not religious. I felt pretty moody about the issue because it seemed kind of blatantly Christian. But instead of getting ruffled, I decided to focus on one of the suggestions: candles.

Yesterday I rummaged around and found a few candles, put some Christmas lights up and played around for half an hour. I was pretty happy with the results except that I should have been back further to get better dof on the candle itself. In any event, I picked out three images that I liked and got them ready to post today. (See the insets)

Except that...well, last week the topic was "Light Bulb" and I sort of did the very same thing except I used a light bulb instead of a candle. Where was my originality? I was annoyed—I hadn't produced the quality I would have preferred and I hadn't pushed myself to think outside the box or grow in any way.

Finally giving up on sleep, I opened my laptop and began reading about Advent symbology. Candles, wreaths, Christmas trees, etc., but then I stopped on a word I didn't know: Chrismon. What that heck was a Chrismon? It's the joining of the word "Christ" and "monogram" and is an ornament that's usually white, but not always. These ornaments can be free-standing decorations or placed on a special Christmas tree that only has Chrismon ornaments—it's called a Chrismon tree.

Ornaments can be made from many things that have specific meaning. For instance, evergreen trees represent eternal life. The traditional number of four candles represent the four weeks before Christmas. Each has its own meaning: hope, joy, faith and peace. Even colors have meaning. I thought it was all very interesting. I had no idea that Advent and Christmas were brimming with so many symbols to convey such deep meaning.

To bring this together with my picture, a couple of days ago I took a walk along our ridge line. Although I was hunting for mushrooms, I couldn't stop myself from finding other things along the way. At one point I looked down and discovered a Black Oak acorn cap sitting on an enormous Ponderosa Pine cone. I was amazed and shook my head, considering the odds of that happening. I loved the way this pair looked so I took a set of pictures. I'd looked at the pictures on the computer and loved the dramatic look of the image.

While learning about Advent symbology, I discovered that pine cones are often used because they signify death and resurrection, and acorns signify good luck and rebirth. My specific input is also that the acorn springs forth from the acorn cap.

The second I put those two nuggets together, the joyful smile on my face warmed the whole room. Nature had provided me with the perfect picture, one that represented who I am and my kind of spirituality! Hooray!

Pam, my idea of Advent when I think of you is the coming of your return to good health. Let us hope that each week that comes to pass, representing hope, joy, faith and peace combine together and bring that gift to you. Many *hugs*!!

Explored on 12/11/18, highest placement, #1.