The Feast of My Epiphany

So here we are on the eve of the start of a brand new year. Tomorrow when we wake, it will be the 1st of January. 2010. A month named after the Roman god Janus. Such an appropriate personification of the start of the new year, for this particular Roman god had two faces; one so that he could look ahead toward the future – and another so that he could look back at the past. As we contemplate releasing 2009 and all that it carried to us, and as we anticipate looking forward to 2010 and all that it will bless us with, perhaps we may be a bit like Janus; honouring the parts of our past that serve us well, while making room for new horizons.

We know through our conscience and our experience the things that served us and others well, and the things that may wish to strive to do differently. (Perhaps more compassionately? More patiently? More lovingly?) Some people make ambitious new year’s resolutions; others take a deep breath and hope for the best. My intentions for this coming year are somewhere in between the two.

Mostly, I want to trust ‘faith’. And I suppose they are one in the same. But my humanness sometimes gets in the way of just ‘trusting’ – as Julian of Norwich is known to have said that ‘all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well’. This is my mantra for living this coming year. But I also know that I have to make considerable contributions towards that with my behaviours, my beliefs, my life values, my actions, my emotions, my intentions. My belief in myself.

Every day that I am blessed to walk on this earth, I know that my life is nothing short of an artful creation ... though each day more realistically seems like an untried recipe. Every morning is a new adventure as a mother, a friend, a counsellor, a wife, a teacher, a community supporter, and many other hats that are too numerous to list here. Each day, the recipe of life is measured with a bit of faith, a bit of luck, a bit of destiny, a bit of genuine effort, and a bit of adventure thrown in. And not necessarily in equal measures. Some days, the day’s recipe seems lacking in something. Other days seem a bit ‘overdone’. And then there are those days that are blessed to be recipe ‘perfection’. And I would like more of those.


So here we are. On the cusp of another new year. A gift of time. And my thoughts turn reflective. A lingering glimpse over the past twelve months. How well have I lived this blessing of the past twelve months? Have my days been free from bitterness? Rancour? Disappointment? Resentment? (You know --- the things that truly waste our precious moments) Hmmm. Well ... most of the time. Yes. But not always, not every moment.


Have I opened my heart and loved as much as I could have at every single opportunity these past twelve months? Well. No. If I’m honest. Because I can feel that I still have some love inside that I haven’t yet given away. It’s still fresh. And someone, somewhere, still needs it.
I long to live in the freedom of ‘using up’ my gifts and talents on a daily basis, rather than horde them for that day when I’ll need them most. Because the irony is that if I don’t use my talents up every day, then I won’t get re-filled up in the way that I know is possible. And necessary. If I’m to make my most complete contribution to the world in my lifetime.



Which is why I LOVE this time of year. Basking in the acknowledgement of what is no longer of service in my life (emotions, behaviours, relationships, beliefs ... and so on). Making room for sheltering more of the influences that I want to shape my life in the coming year. So I flick off the specks of pettiness and littleness so that I can see ... and my vision for this coming year seems ... a wee bit more clear.

Fresh. Clean. Pure. New. I love this time of year for this chance to reshape how I want to continue to ‘be’. To tweak the ‘vision’ through which I see my life and make my contribution back to others. This gift of a new year ahead ... it is like holding in my hands the very fragile yet robust gift of time. A precious ingredient in the recipe of life. Some days it feels too precious to ‘use’. But then I remember the candles I never wanted to burn because they were ‘too pretty’. They ultimately ended up melting in my storage bins, or fading in the sunlight in the glass china cupboard.


No. I don’t want that to happen to this new gift of time that comes my way at the stroke of midnight tonight. I don’t want to tuck away even one single minute – ‘just in case’. I want to use up every juicy morsel of time that I am blessed to acquire.


So, just as with the recipes that nourish our bodies, this great new year ahead isn’t made in one big batch. But rather, one day at a time. Oh, I will use every single moment in this coming year! Yes, that is for certain. Hopefully with better intention and better outcomes than the year I am waving good-bye to, today.


But I don’t want to spoil this great opportunity ahead of me with impatience, resentment, disappointment. Rather, I intend to enjoy the year ahead – one day at a time. For it is a time of reflection as well as celebration. A ‘parade’ of sorts to welcome in the unknown.


So, I have a recipe. The ingredients, you ask? Well, if I get the measurements right, then each day will be sometimes equal, sometimes varying, parts of hope, patience, joy, faith, belief, courage, resourcefulness, devotion, freedom, compassion, prayer and meditation (a LOT more prayer and meditation), self-care (LOTS of self-care) and an intentional focus, a ‘theme’ by which to live in this glorious new year ahead.


(Stay tuned. I will share my 2010 theme in one of my upcoming musings!)



Happy New Year to all of you. From near and far. Tothose of you in each of our three motherlands. To those of you who visit from lands I can only dream of seeing one day. To those of you I am blessed to know well on a daily basis, and those of you I am blessed to know through the marvels of technology.

And Thank You for your faithful friendships.

I’ll leave you with a beautiful new year blessing, Beannacht, written by John O’Donohue (from his beautiful book, Benedictus):

“On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders and you stumble, may the clay dance to balance you.

And when your eyes freeze behind the grey window
and the ghost of loss gets into you, may a flock of colours, indigo, red, green and azure blue come to awaken in you a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays in the currach of thought, and a stain of ocean blackens beneath you, may there come across the waters a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours, may the clarity of light be yours, may the fluency of the ocean be yours, may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow wind work these words around you, an invisible cloak to mind your life.”


Blessings to you in this brand new year, 2010! May you find that it delivers unexpected happiness, surprising opportunity and more contentment than you have ever known before.

E xxx