Celebrating God's Continuous Epiphanies

Epiphany is the celebration of the truth that the God we worship through Christianity is a God who has revealed God's self to the world. Most clearly we Christians believe that revelation has been made through the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Anointed One of God, the Christ. Epiphany is the Feast of the Magi, or Three Kings. It is a celebration of light bursting forth into a world shrouded in shadows and darkness.

Unfortunately I did not get up early this morning and walk to the bay to view the sunrise, which would have been a most appropriate way to mark the Day of Epiphany. But temps in the high 30's in Miami are way too cold for those of us who have lived here long enough we no longer have body memory of freezing weather. So, I stayed in my nice warm bed and gained an extra hour of sleep, which I never seem to get in sufficient quantity.

Yesterday, however, the 12th Day of Christmas, I did not receive "12 drummers drumming" but I did enjoy a "revelation" experience. The night before I was on-call for VITAS and had to attend a death at midnight, an event which lasted until 4 a.m. Again, my sleep was inhibited, so I slept late (until 9 a.m.) and decided I had to go for a walk before going to work, so I took my walk to "The People's Dock" late in the morning before noon. ("The People's Dock" was the name of the public landing that abutted the south side of the Deering Estate property in the early 1900's. Access to that dock is still public, even though Miami-Dade County Parks have expanded the Deering property southward beyond the "South Wall". Since my traditional walk destination on the bay has been closed for six months of renovation work, I now walk about a half mile further to "The People's Dock", which in many ways is actually a superior location from which to view Biscayne Bay, some mangrove islands, and of course if I get there in time, the sunrise.)

Anyway, upon arriving at the Dock, I paused before taking in the water view to peer over the gate in the South Wall of the Deering Estate, just to see what I could see and was surprised to be staring down into the face of a mother raccoon and her two babies. She was equally shocked to be staring up at me. They had been moving out from some heavy grass and I believe were in process of crossing the grassy driveway which proceeds from the gate into the property, probably moving toward the water, when I poked my head into their world! We stared at each other for a brief moment in shock, before she quickly recovered her wits and decided to retreat to the protection of the heavy grass, where I could no longer track her movements. Her two babies followed immediately.

It was the briefest of encounters, but was a marvelous experience. It reminded me again of the much wider, much wilder, creation with which we share this world. Even in what we think of as highly urbanized locations, nature still breaks in and exerts her presence. We share this planet with a far more diverse tree of life than we acknowledge on a daily basis. We are surrounded by a wide variety of birds, even amongst our tallest buildings. Any body of water attracts waterfowl more than we usually stop and appreciate. Though we try our utmost best through our fumigating and exterminating, there are far more insects in our personal spheres of movement than we like to think about. And higher mammals have not yet been wiped out by us, but instead continue to find ways to adapt to our omnipresent influence.

Beyond that, though, the experience also reminded me that I need to remain alert in life and be willing to "look over the wall" to the other side from time to time. (I am not advocating voyeurism, but a removal of the "blinders" I far too often wear as I move through my daily existence.) One never knows what lies just beyond the wall, or in the underbrush, or around the next bend. It is so very easy to develop tunnel vision and never look to the left or right as I move through life. How many "revelations" of the beauty and wonder and glory of God have I missed??? I need to be sure and keep removing the blinders and keep looking for God's next surprise!

A sunrise of promise for 2010

The sun rose brightly over Biscayne Bay on a new day, a New Year, a New Decade. There were clouds on the horizon so the sun was slightly delayed in breaking forth with bright rays of hope and glory for the new day. Somewhat symbolic it seems. Since 2009 was such a difficult year for so many of us undoubtedly we will not be able to put it behind us as quickly as we might like. While 2010 holds the promise of being a better year and for many of the problems of the past several years to begin to be solved, resolved, and improved upon, it will probably not feel a lot different than 2009 for the first part of the year. The promise, though, is that just as the sun did rather quickly rise above the clouds to a clear, open sky to shine forth brightly, 2010 will eventually prove to be a brighter, better year than 2009.

It has begun well for me. I did get up at 6:00 a.m. to walk to the Bay to start my day. As I left the house the full moon which closed out 2009 was still shining in the western sky through a slight haze hanging over the darkened world, whether from Florida humidity, or the remains of all the fire works exploded by our neighbors the previous night (it was like a war zone) providing an ethereal illumination for the beginning of the walk. The sunrise was well worth waking up early and the walk. It is always very nourishing for my soul to spend even just a few minutes down by the Bay at the start of the day. That also means I got my exercise and meditation walk in for the day. I then spent the rest of the morning cleaning up the house to get ready for my daughter to return with one of her Law school classmates for a few days before they have to return to Pennsylvania.

I have also been able to write this post for the blog, which makes two days in a row and provides a good start to 2010. That is my primary resolution this year: to make a commitment to finding time to write, either in my blog or in my private journal, every day. I wrote almost every day when I was on sabbatical. That was in addition to studying Spanish, doing homework, exploring the city in which I was living. There really should not be any excuse for not writing. So I will make a commitment to doing that each and every day this year.

Happy New Year one and all. Hold onto the hope and promise of the sunrise for a new day for our world in 2010!