The year was 1979. The revelers (above) were part of a huge street party that featured “clubs” dressed in the group’s uniform dancing, singing, drinking, and parading through the streets of Burgos, España. I was an exchange student studying the language and taking hundreds of photos.

It could just as well have been New Orleans during Mardi Gras season. Or the streets of Philadelphia where I attended graduate school and witnessed celebrating a World Series win. Or the Tokyo Festival or Paris’ Bastille Day. Or most any other city in the world that engages in some kind of at least annual community-wide party–which is to say, most of them.

Humans love to revel. Often the reveling is instigated by a wonderful turn of events, like Berlin’s Freedom Week celebrating the fall of the Wall. Other times, not so much. Mardi Gras is really debauchery in celebration of debauchery! It’s great fun anyway, but it can get out of hand. Most reveling can and does get out of hand. We humans also often have trouble recognizing healthy boundaries.

This Advent, I urge reveling in creation. Spend some time out there considering the lily, or the frostweed, or the first/last butterfly of the season, or the migrating birds overhead, the rain or snow or sand underfoot…. Don’t just glance. Consider. Revel in whatever happens to be in front of you. As Mary Oliver said, “…walk slowly and bow often.”* It will change you.

*WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES by Mary Oliver, from Thirst (Beacon Press).