Friday, January 06, 2006

• Currently Listening Imagine By John Lennon Crippled Inside (because some beautiful lady (www.xanga.com/soonaquitter) blogged and left a link about cats and nine lives) see related

  Kaylee, my cat, will wait to write her second ever post until her Mama gets home and uploads pictures onto the computer.  Kaylee likes to preen.  She wants desparately to talk about a game she discovered at 2:00 am today.

  In the meantime, I'll have to share something with you so I won't forget.  I was listening to NPR in the car this morning, happy that I stole Stephen's coat before leaving the apartment, waiting for the car to warm up.  Some correspondent from Spain was interviewing locals about their big holiday today.  It's January 6th, Epiphany, a day people often forget or minimize in light of the more comercial holidays.  I'm not as big as most about anniversaries and holidays - at least not that something should happen on a specific day just because of tradition, but.... 

  Let me jump off that tangent right now and come back...

  e·piph·a·ny  -pf-n) n. pl. e·piph·a·nies Epiphany A Christian feast celebrating the manifestation of the divine nature of Jesus to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi. January 6, on which this feast is traditionally observed. A revelatory manifestation of a divine being. A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something. A comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization: “I experienced an epiphany, a spiritual flash that would change the way I viewed myself” (Frank Maier). [Middle English epiphanie, from Old French, from Late Latin epiphania, from Greek epiphaneia, manifestation, from epiphainesthai, to appear  : epi-, forth; see epi- + phainein, phan-, to show; see bh-1 in Indo-European Roots.] from dictionary.com

  This is one of my favorite "holidays."  I don't generally do anything special for it, but in days of olde my parents would take us to church, and my mother wouldn't take down the Christmas tree until this day.  It is the day when the three wise men went to visit Jesus and presented him with gifts.  In Spain, it is the day that children get their candy and presents - they don't do the whole December 25th Christmas celebration-thang like much of the rest of the world.  It makes more sense to get your presents when Jesus traditionally did.  Some myrrh would be nice right about now, eh?

  I guess I just love the word "epiphany."  It speaks of realization, revelation.  Looking at the dates, Christmas and Epiphany surround New Year's, the time for epiphanies and resolutions.  Today marks the end of the Christmas season for me and the beginning of ordinary winter time.  As I struggle with my own faith (sometimes the necessity of Jesus' sacrifice makes sense in my soul and sometimes it doesn't - the only constant lately is Love) I like to use the calendar as a tool.  Today I will think about all of the great realizations in my life, maybe make a resolution to write more of them down for safekeeping to ease the burden of this brain I house which I think might be malfunctioning in its unwillingness to remember things I think are important.  I hope to spend the next few winter months thinking about things bitter and blessed.  Then will come Lent, when I'll think about Mardi Gras and the tragedy in New Orleans and then consider more strongly the idea of fasting from something to help purify my body and mind.

  In other news, Happy Friday!  It's been a short week, but it's felt so long to me. 

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