Epiphany
January 4, 2007 · by Christine
Friday and Saturday is our next Awakening the Creative Spirit session and so I will be very busy the next couple of days and then recovering! We are exploring visual art this time and I am the lead teacher (Betsey and I switch back and forth depending on the art form we are exploring). I am eager to be with the wonderful women in our group again.
Sunday is the Feast of Epiphany in the Christian Church. I love the story of Epiphany: Strangers following a star in the hopes of a sacred encounter, trusting their intuitions, allowing God to be so much bigger than they imagined, finding the holy in unexpected places, listening to the messages of their dreams, carrying sacred gifts with them, and following a trail of light across desert sand.
If, as Herod, we fill our lives with things, and again with things…
If we consider ourselves so unimportant that we must fill every moment of our lives with action,
when will we have the time to make the long, slow journey across the desert as did the Magi?
Or sit and watch the stars as did the shepherds?
Or brood over the coming of the child as did Mary?
For each of us, there is a desert to travel. A star to discover.
And a being within ourselves to bring to life.
-Author Unknown
What is the long slow journey you are being invited to take? What is the star waiting for you to discover? What is being brought to life within you?
The dictionary says epiphany means the sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something. May you be blessed with insight into the hidden and luminous nature of things. In a moment of grace and revelation, may you see more clearly, deeply, and truly than you did just a moment before.
-Christine Valters Paintner
January 4th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
This was so lovely Christine, and the most moving Epiphany post I’ve read! A Very Blessed Epiphany to you : ) Wendy
January 5th, 2007 at 6:26 am
I bought a special Epiphany candle yesterday. Will blog it tomorrow.
Blessed be your week-end.
January 5th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I am always far to busy…and it is self-imposed the act of listening and paying attention is something for me to learn.
January 5th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Thanks Wendy! I just love the quote.
Britt-Arnhild, I look forward to seeing the candle!
Hi Me, it seems you do a fair amount of listening through your art. I find photography really nurtures a contemplative space within me.
Blessings to you all! Christine
January 6th, 2007 at 3:52 am
Christine, I wouldn’t say my epiphany is a sudden manifestation or perception…But it seems if I have been brought to a stand sill. The storms, the power outages, the renovations, the flooding, cleaning the debris from the landscape. In the aftermath of these circumstances, in the mess…strangley, if finding peace. I’m finding most of the debris is being cleared from within myself…it’s been a long time since I have travelled such a distance, in such a confined space. I need to take more of these journeys. Pax…Ron+
January 7th, 2007 at 11:10 am
What a lovely reflection Ron, I am glad to see you are back to blogging. We have had quite a time of it here in the NW!
January 8th, 2007 at 10:15 am
hi christine, hope your Epiphany weekend brought insight and meaning for you.
i had quite the dream a couple of nights ago. i’ve never dreamt of gears before, and wow…it was enormous. in this huge warehouse were many floors of just gears turning in different sizes. the layers of floors were open to each other, yet separate. i finally found the office of the operator of the gears and awoke as i was walking up the steel stairsway! i tried to continue the dream last nite, but i don’t think i concentrated hard enough on it. will try again tonight. i do get a feeling of acheivement and feels as though it might represent ideas. i’ve been thinking hard about the new direction for my woodblock.
hope you don’t mind me mentioning this in your Epiphany post. but i do think it goes along with insight, meaning, perception, manifestation, etc…
Peace and hugs!
January 8th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Hi Bette, what a great dream! Thanks so much for sharing it, it fits in beautifully with Epiphany. I love the image of all the gears turning, what a gift it offers of confidence in all the creativity at work in you! You can also try re-entering the dream landscape while awake and seeing what happens.
My weekend brought lots of insights and meaning, I shared a little in the post I just wrote, but there is even more percolating within me!
Blessings, Christine