December 16th, 2025

Hi Friends,

I looked up the word in order to get the definition. The irony of what I found wasn’t lost on me.

The word in question, “keening”, comes from a mid-19th century Irish word that means “to wail.” It describes wailing in grief or an eerie wailing sound. It can also be used as a verb (“keen”) in order to describe “expressing grief or pain out loud.”

I’m drawn to the word because of Steve Bell and Malcolm Guite’s song, “Keening for the Dawn” on the cd of the same name. The song raises the question of what’s going on in our world, how darkness and evil continue to manifest and how we medicate and distract ourselves with the things of this world in order to dull the real pain, or silence the real questions, that exist below the surface of our lives.

Keening is a part of waiting in the midst of misery or sorrow. With all the loss we’ve experienced at HFL this year, it’s not hard to understand. How many of us will be aware, this Christmas, of the absence of a loved one? How many more are waiting through an anguishing reality that simply isn’t predictable but doesn’t seem to go away?  

What about the rest of us? What are we waiting for? Perhaps it’s more substance and less pizzaz or less of the endless quest for more and more meaning with less activity.

When I looked up the word, the following other questions appeared: What is a keening sound? When was keening banned? What is the synonym? Is keen a compliment? Is it still practiced today? Why don’t you move your arms in Irish dancing? Should I say Gaelic or Irish? What religion has the quickest funeral? What is the 40 day rule after death? Abstract, tangential questions distracting me from my search.

The temptation to go “down the rabbit hole” is immense — anything to get away from grim reality or emptiness, anything to preoccupy or distract. One old hymn called these “things that could not satisfy.” They bombard us, these things, but they never deliver anything but a hangover and an irrational desire for something else to fill the void.

May I suggest that the antidote to these cravings is simply to wait, perhaps in both literal and metaphorical silence. Ruminate on the deeper longings that fuel this endless hunger. What do I really need? What do I really want? Why do I settle for “things that could not satisfy?” What am I afraid of? Why does all this stuff leave me still empty?

In Advent we wait — not in a vacuum but in the knowledge that Christ has come, Christ is here, Christ is coming again. All will be well and justice will be administered. All is well. We are not alone. Immanuel — come and fill this void, this longing, with yourself.

Blessings!

Doug