One Word 365: Epiphany

Image by Jennifer Upton

I love the new year – the official start to a new chapter in time.  I relish the opportunity to pause, reflect and refocus.

But the reflection has been challenging over the past few weeks as I face the reality of another year – a fourth year – coming and going without the change we’ve been fighting for, the miracle we’ve been looking for.

It has forced me to ask – is it worth it?  The goal-setting, the dreaming, the migrating back to hope.  Is it worth the effort when you’re already discouraged and weary?

I am craving clarity, focus, something to hold on to.  I wanted my one word, but nothing was coming.  Until a story sister mentioned epiphany and another one said sometimes you have to just take hold of what you need, claim it as yours.

Epiphany is a sudden realization – a flash of recognition in which someone or something is seen in a new light.  It usually comes after a long struggle or search, wrestling with a problem or concept until the light shines and clarity comes.  Originally, this clarity or insight was believed to only come through the divine – a supernatural enlightenment.

And so, with trembling hope, I am declaring 2014 the year of Epiphany, where light pierces the darkest clouds.  After the long struggle, I am believing for sudden realizations bringing fresh perspective.  I want to see myself in a new light and for the many puzzle pieces I have struggled to make sense of to be basked in a glow of understanding only available through the Divine.

I expect surprise.

I expect awakening.

I expect revelation.

I am choosing to empty the disappointments and open myself wide to drink in the illuminations, to savor the epiphany.