This earthly life is the journey, not my destination
Making sense of the Epiphany
I was in conversation while having coffee in the London Sky Garden just before Christmas when I asked, “When is the first day of Christmas?” Another replied, “Christmas day”.
I mused how had I gone through 47 years of life without knowing that. How did I sing and listen to the 12 days of Christmas without ever knowing the first day? It is one of those moments when you wonder how you didn’t get it before as now it is so obvious. It reminds me of the time I asked my mother, “Why the Virgin Mary was called the Virgin?” She didn’t answer, I was about 8. One day I understood.
I was delayed this year in putting up Christmas decorations and lights. Indeed it was not until I read the annual story, ‘The night before Christmas’ to my now 17-year-old daughter that a spark ignited in me to do it while she slept. Curiously I was in time as the first day starts on December 25th.
I remained mindful that we were walking through the days of Christmas and on the twelfth day the decorations could be taken down and put away. For years I could never answer the question, “On what date does Twelfth night fall?” This year I now know the calculation just count 12 days marking Christmas day as the first day.
I kind of had my own Epiphany this year as I understood when it fell, today! Epiphany is the term for the religious festival when it is believed the wise men visited Jesus. It is also used when something becomes clear in a rather dramatic way. I now understand the 12 days of Christmas though it was not particularly dramatic.
But what if…. but what if our lives our journeys not destinations? Our purpose would not be to settle to continue on. When we settle we accumulate. We build a home to live in and then fill it so much that it is difficult to continue journeying.
What if we were to remain light like nomadic people just enough to live but not too much to encumber us. Is our following restricted to Twitter or are we still seeking and following a hunch? I am not sure what your hunch might be but mine, well mine, is that there are schools of learning that I must go through. They started off as schools in the educational sense and indeed the religious sense but they became much more. Some of the schools were so secret that even I did not know I was in them until I transitioned to the next one.
I have a sense that I am a pilgrim and that this earthly life is the journey, not my destination. The journey is fascinating dare I even say I love it? But it is the movement that I enjoy. It is as if a star is hidden within me that is making its way home.
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