That's My Plan!

A New Year's Quote... An Epiphany, if you will!!

‎"You have done what you could — some blunders and absurdities have crept in. Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." Emerson


Not only, is this appropriate for a new year, it is more the philosophy I use with my students each day… and should be how we all view our blunders and absurdities in life.. As well as the new challenges and new ways of being ourselves! I love the part about your spirit being far higher than the old nonsense.


I love the Epiphany, (and not so much the New Year, at times.). It is funny. I am one of these people who are hit with it all at one time. As I write this I am embarking on the eve of my 46th revolution around the sun. (Yes. my birthday). One gets a little contemplative when Christmas, New Year, Birthday, and yes. Epiphany occurs all within 12 days of each other! Makes for some interesting couch time during the holidays! One can spend a great deal of time sitting in a blunder from 6 months ago or last week. One can find the most scrupulous ways to bring oneself down. Tell themselves, “Hey guess what?? You did it again didn’t you??” Or better yet, “ You did it more than once this year...” And sit within the “old nonsense” of uncertainty and judgment. Self-doubt, impatience and fear. And ultimately, in the end the reason we miss the moment of anything we set out to do is simply out of fear.

Do you know that I’ll bet the Magi felt this way plenty of times in their 2-year journey toward the Savior. Think about not having GPS, a media-packaged mobile device, or even a map maybe?? They studied the stars, (Its all they had!)They had faith, though, more importantly. They had faith that they were about to witness a miracle. The manifestation of God in human form. They were willing to step out and journey toward something they’ve only heard about. Perhaps read about. And certainly had no idea about. Most Gentiles (non-Jews) were not awaiting a Divine King to come down and save the world from itself. There’s some absurdity for ya!

They stopped to converse with King Herod about the whereabouts of “This Child” … Herod, knew they meant business. Why do 3 learned men travel so far to bestow gifts upon a poor infant if not for all the right reasons??! And yet Herod, in all his human weakness could still only think about how the Infant King was somehow sent here to depose him! And there is how limited our humanness ventures!


Herod begged them to return to Jerusalem after paying homage, so that Herod might do so as well… Again, talk about absurdity. Melchior, Balthazaar and Gaspar were fortunate “wise men” who paid attention to dreams and signs… listened to their internal GPS... their gut, and got the message LOUD and CLEAR one evening before leaving Bethlehem. “Go home another way.” How on earth would they have known otherwise? Stupid? Absurd? Perhaps the biggest blunder in history could have been in the works, until the signs came. They serenely climbed back onto their camels, spirits held high, and certainly unencumbered to go back home and preach about the coming of God’s Son to the other corners of the world.

Were they scared? Probably. But not half as scary as it would’ve been if they did what they thought to be “right”. No, instead God always has a larger plan for us if we are willing to shed are earthly encumbered junk and just, well... “Follow His Star.” Make God the pilot! So, put your GPS’ away, Power down your Mobile Devices, roll up your man-made maps and IPADS and do what I do every Epiphany for my children and myself, crack open a V8… Hit myself upside the head... and say...”I could’ve had a V8!” to explain what exactly an Epiphany is! A delicious, nutritious drink that fills us, gives us energy, and makes us healthy, rather than the empty Diet Coke that seems easy to drink, falsely sweetened, and full of empty calories. “Ah... what a difference.”

Epiphany is really your new start. Not 2012. It is a start that doesn’t happen at the Winter Solstice or just beyond each and every year… it is always present to us as long as we choose to see God in all of our works, actions and encounters…. And let Him to plot our course, take the wheel and drive!


“Let Him plot our course, take the wheel and drive!” That’s my resolution for the New Year. That , my brothers and sisters in Christ, is my plan!