Laurie Klein, Scribe

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Belated Epiphany

by Laurie Klein 43 Chiming In

Belated Epiphany . . .

Belated because, so often, words only come when they’re ready. Or is it when we’re ready?

Belated Visitor

Shadowing the Magi

Tingling, needy, marked
by the long quest—the divining,
then hope, my superstitions
giving way yet again
before anxious relief—this is how
I enter. Taking a knee,

it seems you scarcely breathe.
Does each intake feel
like your first? Maybe
we both look struck, luminous
as the baby’s skin,
starlight still pulsing there. Hush,

friend, the holy has come
so gently we dare approach.

*

Dear ones, I hope your days are unfolding gently.

Each January I seek a word or phrase expansive enough to guide me throughout the year. Then I line up my lettering pens, print out my theme. Mirror, journal, dashboard, fridge; a pocket, a purse—I spread my reminders around.

But last year, nothing. Several months passed. When would the words come?

Although belated, I chose a single letter, instead. There’s a story, of course: “Alphabet of Presence.” (I hope you’ll read it here: Abbey of the Arts.)

So, amid last year’s viral mayhem, cutthroat opinions, and global grief, I became a disciple of “B.”

B is for Belated

Oh, I hope you’ll try it! Once you settle on a letter, you’ll find invitational words pop up everywhere: media, billboards, conversations. Surprise livens the day. Sometimes, it’s downright heady, like sipping chilled champagne, little stars among your teeth, on your tongue, all down your throat.

A word is a launch pad. Are you game? For starters, borrow a few of mine that start with “B.”

Watch the classic movie, “Babette’s Feast” (free here).

Listen to “Be Thou My Vision,” sung by Audrey Assad, or Selah, respectively,
here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Optrm7lF16s
and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKByTfiHOFE

Bestow a kindness. This passage has inspired many a prayer, email, and letter:
“The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me, because he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted … to comfort all who mourn … to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes” (Isaiah 61:1-3).

Create a collage. Repurpose images beginning with your letter of choice, using old photos, magazines, junk mail.

Compose lyrics for a tune you love. I piggybacked mine on “Morning Has Broken”:

Beauty before me, Beauty behind me,
bridging our spirits, bountiful Lord;
Brimming within me, moving beside me,
timelessly guide me, forevermore.

Practice breath prayers. Are you grieving? This one helps me:
(on the inhale) Alone, yes, (exhale) but never abandoned.

Ponder questions like these:

What blessed me today?
Who blindsided me?
Where am I broken?
What might yet be born, and what must I bury?

Whether my idea was belated or perfectly timed, I found choosing a letter provided spontaneous, small epiphanies throughout a long, difficult year. And whenever I get bored, there are 25 more.

But . . . I’ve yet to exhaust the beauties of “B.”

There is always a journey. Sometimes, a cave. Often, a star.

*

In closing, here’s what I hope I’d have said, had I joined the Magi that day:

Take my coat, little one,
you’re shivering. How new,

this now we share, the first
of many yet to be known—by you,

by me—slowly, slowly going
home, by a different way.

lauriekleinscribe logo

Friends, if you choose a letter, I’d love to hear about your experience.

And please, if you’d enjoy more posts similar to this one (ideas, resources, links), let me know . . .

Explore “Alphabet of Presence” here: Abbey of the Arts

You might also enjoy Epiphany and the Epic Icicle

Lastly, welcome, new subscribers! I’m so glad you’re here.
And thank you to all who’ve journeyed with me for so many years.

Magi Photo by Michael Payne on Unsplash

Apologies for the incorrect citation of scripture, and thank you, Lynn, for alerting me!
Collage and “B” photo, by yours truly :>)

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: Alphabet of Presence, Belated Epiphany, journey, Magi, star January 7, 2022

Star-wise: Weathering Whatever Befalls

by Laurie Klein 20 Chiming In

Star-wise, the Magi traversed foreign sands, often against the wind. 

The star beckoned.

Uncharted terrain, bandits and unwritten tribal codes, regional airborne viruses—everywhere, monumental risk.

By night, they braved prowling beasts; by day, in town after town, the narrowed eyes of strangers.

Perhaps second thoughts eroded their confidence.

Is this the best plan?
Did I choose the right gift?
How will I make it through these days? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: anxieties, fragmentation, ice, Magi, Risk, star, star-wise December 18, 2017

Epiphany and the Epic Icicle

by Laurie Klein 42 Chiming In

Rowdy wind rocks our trees. It strums our Corinthian wind chimes (Tuned to a C chord, they’re gorgeous).

I raise Dreamer’s cell phone (mine’s not as smart). With a click, I’m recording the chimes.

Flash Forward. By midnight, this list will describe my day:

Mop up dog barf
Accidentally break favorite bowl
Shovel snow
Make a nice lunch for Dreamer (which makes him sick)
Struggle with blog post
Struggle with “chimes video” (which won’t upload)
Mutter bad words
Bite tongue
Accidentally shatter the “Peace” (Marquee falls off mantel)
shatter the peace
Get car stuck in driveway

And that would be the really long driveway I already spent several days clearing, shovelful by shovelful. (Did I mention our plow’s on the fritz?)

Snow’s still coming down. And I will shovel again. Very soon.

Earlier today, with ice-flurries biting like buckshot, no let-up in sight and my stamina gone, can you picture me slumping over my shovel? Never mind I grew up in Wisconsin.

Now imagine an icicle. Measured against me, it’s taller (also gradually thickening), and it weeps a little, into a drift: A Kleincicle, stout as a thigh bone.

Seems the Epic Icicle is taxing the eaves. Posing a threat to anyone walking nearby—not unlike envy, frustration, an urge for revenge—sadly, my latest temptations.

Must I really knock it down?

Better to first stamp a row of holes in the snow, little burial spots. (Sometimes I need a visual.) In goes envy. Then angst. Meanness. Hurt.

The flakes fall faster now. I fill in each void with a confession, a boot scuff: the lug sole of gratitude.

Ahhh, newness, white as snow.

Then I wield the shovel. Crack! Chunk by knobbly chunk, down she goes, the once-proud column in ruins.

Back indoors, that image of ruin stays with me.

Epiphany

In The Broken Way, Ann Voskamp writes: “Let love break into you and mess with you and loosen you up and make you laugh and cry and give and hurt because this is the only way to really live. . . . Don’t waste a minute on anything less . . .”

In other words: Kiss the curmudgeon! Serve up those Tums on a silver dish. Cut loose with a Bigfoot ballet and a sweeping bow. Squirrel away dish shards: make a mosaic later.

I don’t know about your day, or your past year, but I hit some rough terrain: cold, hard, heartsore places that blurred my outlook. Froze my hopes.

Epiphany, heart of ice

So lately, I’m leaning into a personal epiphany via this thought from Ann Voskamp (my paraphrase):

Every morning we get to rise (“get to?” . . . I get to rise).

God believes in us (now I’m speechless),

believes in His stories being written through us . . .

Epiphany, traditionally

The Magi followed a chunk of ice screwed into the sky. A blinking Marquee bulb, proclaiming “Peace”—despite how often we’d break it.

Did those who searched the heavens for signs ever sense that Heaven believed in them, was writing the Story through them?

And after they knelt before their new God, beside those famous three gifts, I wonder what else they left behind.

What will you leave behind in this New Year?

What chosen word or phrase will guide you?

click to hear the Klein wind chimes

lauriekleinscribe logo                                                                                         

 

 

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: Amplectamur diem, Carpe diem, epic icicle, epiphany, new, squeeze the day, star January 4, 2017

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