Finding Advent with this Wednesday’s Inspiring Woman…Meg Ferrante.

She’s the perfect woman to have an e-conversation with these last few days leading up to Christmas morning.

 When did the blog start? Why?

Four years ago I attended a woman’s advent dinner designed to set the focus for the season. It changed the entire course of Christmas for me that year. I needed a bigger advent focus in my life to make the Christmas season more sane and more spiritual.

I was in a real rut because I set this standard for myself (homemade gifts, handwritten cards, the whole works) before having children that I tried to keep up.  Not pretty. I was making a right miserable Christmas for myself.

The blog is affordable therapy. Ditto. By committing to it, it forces me daily to focus on the reason for the season. It’s only bonus that other people seem to get a lot out of it, too.

What do you do? What did you do in your former life?

In some form or another, I’ve always been a writer. I’ve been writing since the days of wet, smelly-ink mimeograph printing. I remember that stuff…you can’t possibly be that old.

My sister and I used to hand-write a neighborhood newsletter for kids. We had a lending library under our ping pong table and actually liked writing book reports about what we read.

It grew from there — editor of my high school newspaper, journalism school, and lost-track-of-how-many-staff-newspaper-jobs since then. Career highlights include feature stories in Mothering and Lake Oconee Living magazines , a Chicago Sun-Times op-ed piece impressive and first place in the 2008 Georgia Press Association Features division. I also used to write/edit/design a mini-magazine called “Screamachine: the MamaCoaster Zine” that has a special place in my I-love-me file. Haven’t reached my ultimate goal — writing a novel — because I don’t know if I have the guts or the discipline. It’s this thing called a day. It only has 24 hours. If only we could function without sleep.

How do you find contributors for the blog?

I tapped into some of my zine crowd and most of my church crowd. Mostly though, if I send my mother-in-law an email, it goes to 439 of her closest friends and the job’s done! Aren’t mother-in-laws awesome.

It’s open to everyone… my motto is that the blog is “a group effort to hold off the crying children, beat back the worldly commitments, forget about the crazy job concerns and shut out other distractions to take a little time and meditate daily on the reason for the season.

What has surprised you about doing this?

Some completely random people have found the blog and started following it. I don’t advertise, optimize or monetize it so how have they come across it? It’s a small world on the web. Also, I’ve discovered that some of my non-writer friends are actually EXCELLENT writers. Sometimes when the spirit moves you, great things happen.

How have you “found advent?” How have you “met  Jesus or met the baby” through the blog?

Like my house, my prayer life can be severely scattered. I’m a believer, but a seriously imperfect and inconsistent one. I go to the blog and for just a brief moment in time, I’m still with God. Sometimes, on those really inspirational days, I can actually *feel* the grace and love of His Son.

It’s so much better for me to do all this in writing than trying to do it in my highly distracted head! Your head seems right on. That’s from one who has intimate knowledge of a distracted head. 

Thanks so much for taking time to chat, Meg. May you have a blessed Christmas and share my motto…a tidy house (and perfect blog typeset)  is a sign of a misspent life. 

I’ll look forward to getting to know you and your writing much better in 2011.