Travelling and Epiphanies

Did you know that the Epiphany is Spain's Christmas? What I mean is that they get presents and spend the day with their family and all the things we do on Christmas Day, they do on 6th January. They didn't actually even celebrate Christmas until like 10 or 15 years ago when it's commercialisation hit the shores (or stores?) of Spain. The big companies saw how much money they could make by having two days to buy gifts for and they've never looked back. I asked a kid at school what they got and they said "I got a tablet for Christmas and a Laptop for Reyes." (which is Spanish for Kings, as in The day the Kings came, as in the Epiphany) To me, that's just cREYESzy. lol.

In honour of this special day, I'd like to share an epiphany I had. (GET IT?!) As some of you know, I chose the biggest trek of a travel plan which totaled about 70 hours there and back. It was entirely worth it, but something happened on my way back to Spain that struck me. I had an idea...It might have been God, it might also have been extreme exhaustion...either way I'm going to try it out and hopefully keep it up. The idea is to write an Ode Series. Now I only did high school English and I'm not hugely familiar with the world of poetry, but on my travels I began to write, and what I wrote surprised me and this just seemed to fit.

The idea came to me as I cast my mind back over the Christmas holidays and wondered why it felt so special and the answer hit me straight away: people. People are what make my life special. People are where I see God. He works through people to get to me and it's effective. There are too many people in my head that I would want a chance, and the courage, to honour personally so this is my way of doing that.

With that in mind I'd like to share what I wrote.

Ode to the Broken

There are people in life,

Well, there are lives,

That become broken.

Death, separation, poverty, depression, abuse, darkness.

Through no fault of their own,

They find themselves,

Well, a part of themselves,

Broken.

Class does not protect them.

Money cannot save them.

Running will not heal them.

There are those who break,

And declare themselves irreparable.

Well, it seems that way.

Then there are those who break,

And fight to repair what’s broken.

These people find their strength

In love, faith and hope.

Two young girls who lost their mother,

On Christmas Day, 3 months later,

Somehow become a light for everyone around them.

They shine out with love and hope for the future.

Do not think they are unbroken.

These young girls are shattered.

The difference is that they did not allow the end of one life,

To be the end of their own.

These young girls are my heroes.

They will wander in 50 years still with scars of the break.

But what will seep through these scars?

Hatred and bitterness and cynicism and darkness?

Or love and faith and hope and support for others in similar situations?

If you asked me, I’d say humans never fully recover from a break.

Yet there remains a choice.

A simple choice, made difficult through natural tendency.

A choice that will change their life,

And the lives of everyone around them.

Accept and share an all-encompassing love,

Or numb the pain, and reject positivity.

These are both dangerous paths,

One can bring hurt and painful memories and vulnerability,

The other can bring only darkness.

Make the right choice.

Thanks for reading and I'm open to suggestions as to where this could go/how I could improve the idea! I hope you are all enjoying a new year filled with new opportunities for love, faith and hope.

Dios te bendiga,

Eilidh