Jan 6- the day of Epiphanies

According to the liturgical calendar, today is the Day of the Epiphany. The day when the three wise men found the Christ child in the manger. The actual definition of "epiphany" is "clear appearance." In old customs, today is also considered "Little Christmas." Today was the day of many little epiphanies for me.

Since the New Year, I have kept my promise of not letting things bother me, but the last two days have been rough. Unfortunately, the roughest part came today when I received news that one of my students left this world and went home to God. During this process, I noticed the behavior of others and how they reacted to others. Those who genuinely cared about the students involved were cast aside while those who generally do not care about students were exalted. For me, this was a difficult situation to understand. During this discernment process, I was met with one of my friends who explained, under no certain terms, what was actually happening. For her, I am thankful for she helped me see the "clear appearance" of the mechanisms and the politics involved.

An old friend of mine used to say to me "take a step back and look at the whole picture." Through the epiphanies today, I need to take that step back. I need to see what actually is going on, not only from my perspective, but the reality of the situation(s). Perhaps the phone call at 9:32pm telling us that we have a half day of school tomorrow is forcing me to look at the whole picture. Perhaps, I need to "take that step back."

I find it disheartening that we have become a society that is self centered and self absorbed. Where is the humanity? When did we fall into the trap of "it is all about me?" When did we begin to exalt those who are incompetent exhaust those who work and care? To these questions, I do not have an answer. I keep praying for one, but the answer has not come.

Maybe the answer has come and it just wasn't clear enough for me. Perhaps these little occurances are just those "little Christmas's" that are a gentle reminder for me to "take that step back and see the whole picture" and realize what is really important out of life. My lessons are being learned the hard way, but I guess, in essence, I am the wise man who is forever celebrating Christmas.