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Anderson on Advent Calendars – on CBC’s “Cost of Living”

(plus a cat video)

This last week I had the pleasure of appearing on a segment of the CBC Radio program “Cost of Living“ — about Advent Calendars. OK, I say, “pleasure,” but some of you are as avid about Radio One as me, so you know it was more akin to whatever was happening at those early Beatles’ concerts:

Cost of Living with Paul Haavardsrud airs across the country on Sundays at noon, and is rebroadcast Tuesdays at 11:31 a.m. It’s also on-demand on podcast platforms and CBC Listen. We enjoy the show, so it was quite a thrill when CBC producer Leah Hendry contacted me to ask my thoughts on Advent and on Advent Calendars. Being me, I had a LOT of thoughts. I probably wrote and researched as much as I would for a university lecture! Of course, most of it didn’t make it on to the episode. Cost of Living is a highly-scripted production, so I knew my part would be distilled to a few quick clips. As a life-long fan of CBC Radio, and someone who already felt fortunate to appear on Nova Scotia, Montreal, and Saskatchewan CBC shows a number of times, it was a real honour to “go national!” As my friend Ken Wilson put it, “you’re famous! You’re on the national network!”

It just so happened that I heard the segment live when I was in the car, headed to town. So I pulled over, grabbed my phone, and recorded the five minutes for posterity.

Now, you may not be enamoured of listening to the radio as a background to turn signals and shifting back-seat groceries and windshield washer antifreeze. The sound quality isn’t bad for something captured on an Android device after taking off my gloves. But it is “real time, in-the-car” audio.

So if, like me, you prefer your CBC programs polished, and in full, then have a listen to the entire half-hour Dec 5, 2025 episode of Cost of Living. You can listen to it HERE.

Since I had several pages of notes on the history of Advent Calendars, I pitched an article to The Conversation Canada. That piece, titled “The Surprising Theology Inside Today’s Advent Calendars,” is out today, HERE. (They say it’s a two-minute read, shorter than most folks spend every visit to social media.)

On the CBC clip I said I wanted a whiskey calendar. But we actually have these ones pictured, with chocolate and cat treats, originating from Europe (IKEA) and from BC. What kind of advent calendars are you using this year? Let me know in the comments! On a more spiritual level, I’ve been following Ray Aldred’s daily advent devotions “Alongside Hope,” the Lutherans Connect Advent series, as well as enjoying occasional advent reflections from Sheila O’Handley, a real life hermit from Cape Breton whom I had the pleasure of meeting with my class this fall.

After The Conversation article came out, I also had a lovely, and somewhat more spiritual, conversation with Alison Brunette at CBC Breakaway, in Quebec City. You can find that 9-minute conversation HERE.

So, whether reading, listening, reflecting, or just eating chocolate…happy advent!

Bonus Cat Content: Theodore in the Snow

Apropos of nothing else in this post, but in celebration of the fact that the first major snowstorm of the season hit recently, here’s a fun 12-second video for you of our not-so-feral-anymore cat Theodore, who sleeps in the house at night now. Today Sara took this video of his joy jumping back out into the deep new-fallen snow. She missed the part where he rolled crazily around in it when he first dashed out. It’s like a child’s celebration of winter. Enjoy!

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A Room of One’s Own: strokeaversary week 9

I remember walking from Melrose Scotland, to Holy Island, England, in 2013. After some extremely hot and tiring days, the path took me up a 300-metre ascent to a rocky outcrop. (There was also the small matter of a pasture with bulls, which can happen when you have the “Right of Responsible Access” to pastureland–but that’s another story.) At the top I stopped to catch my breath. Turning to see the view, I realised that there on the distant horizon two valleys over, I could make out the ruins of the Roman fort where I’d stopped on my first morning of pilgrimage, two days before.

That’s how this week feels. The pilgrimage through my stroke is hardly over. But this week I’m seeing how far I’ve come. The parallel bars (below) that not so long ago represented the greatest distance I could possibly shuffle are now where I try balancing while standing on my left leg without support. I have more strength in that leg every day. Without use of my left hand and arm to steady myself, my balance is off. But the distance? No problem.

Although the physios aren’t recommending I do this at home, Lee is making me practise climbing stairs one per foot, like you probably walk them, instead of like a toddler does. This week she had me kicking a soccer ball back and forth with her (I had to hold on to a railing for support, but my left leg did quite well.) For the first time since my stroke I did up the button on a pair of jeans on my own. And I might only be able to “bench press” a featherweight aluminum cane. But the simple fact my left arm can even hang on is a major win. And for the first time this week, I could sometimes push my arm straight ahead on a table. “Cheers” is getting closer!

I’m thankful that the newly-conscripted neurons in my brain that agreed to take over the management of my arm and hand are beginning to sort out their new roles. But I have to be patient: I was so anxious to force my wrist to flex in my room that my hand swelled up like a balloon. I suffered painful cramps until it recovered. Sara suggested, since I am so eager to use all my time working on recovery, that I do it in other ways than “extreme boot camp” (as she put it) and instead take some time each day to be consciously grateful to my brain and my awakening left side. It’s great advice, so I’ve added that to my routine.

Lee, who works mainly with my legs, says she’s amazed at my progress. She hasn’t seen this video of me bringing my own tea to the couch at home on my “weekend pass” today, without cane or walker. I’m not sure what she’d think!

When I was watching this video and bemoaning the lack of fluidity in my step Sara reminded me that just six weeks ago it required two people to hoist me out of bed and get me to the washroom. Looking back brings perspective.

There’s no news yet about “Handcamp”…. they’re waiting on word of whether I’m eligible. But I’m booked in Halifax at the end of the month for a preliminary cardio assessment, a first step to the procedure to close the hole in my heart that may have let a clot pass to the brain.

Having a room to myself is making a world of difference. The previous week, with little rest day or night, I was looking “increasingly frazzled and worn,” in the words of one nurse. Now I sleep well most nights. During the day there’s peace, so I can read, listen to CBC, write (working on some poetry), or do my physio. I also feel more comfortable video-chatting with the kids, and I attended my own class by Zoom this week when Elizabeth Castelli graciously came to talk to them about early Christian ascetic women patrons. Now Sara can even bring her meal and share the whole evening, as her schedule allows. From a place of stress, my hospital room has become an oasis for healing.

I’m thankful to the physio team – Lori, Lee, Ria, Lina, and Abby – who are so patient with me day after day. They were the ones who pushed for a room where I would get the rest my brain needs to recover. The staff know that my dogged motivation comes from being supported by so many of you. One of the orderlies looked at my shelf of cards and said “well, aren’t YOU well-loved!” That comment gave me a physical rush of warmth and comfort.

Several of you recommended recently that I read Daniel Levitin’s just-published “I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine.” Coincidentally, Levitin and I had an email exchange last spring, when he asked me something about Prophets of Love: The Unlikely Kinship of Leonard Cohen and the Apostle Paul. We exchanged books by mail. So I’m reading Secret Chord now, and feeling the recuperative power of music every day (see below). I should tell Levitin I’ve had a stroke, and how applicable his research is for me.

That healing power of music is definitely helping release some of the frozenness of my left side. I’ll sign off this week’s update with the clip below, more evidence of how far I’ve travelled with this stroke. I love to dance… and in my own room, now I can. Or better, we can. If you know me, you know this has GOT to be good for my recovery!

[Click here for my podcast about that walk from Melrose, Scotland, to Holy Island.]