Epiphany; Sacred In The Profane
All existence is sublime.
The Christian Epiphany holiday celebrates the revelation that Jesus Christ was divinity manifest in physical form. Despite being a self imposed religious exile, I still celebrate, and I do so year-round. Indeed, I experience epiphanies almost daily; I seek them out! The process is simple; I look for the sacred in ordinary life. I notice the purity radiating from a baby's face, see the innocence of a toddler taking her first steps, observe myself in the anger of a teenage boy. I marvel at the Herculean effort of an older woman clerking at a grocery store cash register for eight hours. Closer to home, I behold the heroic efforts of my former wife, who, when I met her, was a struggling unwed mother.
The rarest but most important epiphanies occur when I notice the perfect beauty of difficult and complicated people, monsters even. Like all of us, these people are a product of this world's suffering; and the only proper response to suffering must include compassion.
We are all an expression of the sacred and the cycle of suffering. When I recognize the sacred and profane in myself, I hold a sympathetic lens through which ordinary people and things aren't ordinary at all; they are revealed as beautiful, serious, deep, and fascinating. Our own lives are just as interesting as those of the traditional heroes and spiritual masters.
My image ‘Epiphany’ recalls my devotion to peer deeply into the experience of others.