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Here’s an interesting word for you to start the New Year: EPIPHANY. It is of course an ancient Greek word and means to experience personally a sudden manifestation of an essential truth. I would call it a WOW! experience that strikes at your very heart/mind/soul – and is truly an illuminating discovery that causes you to see something you have never noticed before. A person does not have too many epiphany experiences in a lifetime but each one is unforgettable. Let me share one I had way back when I was still a teenager. Not feeling well I had come home from high school about mid-morning to what I expected to be an empty house for everybody worked in those days. We lived in a three family red brick house – upstairs apartment was rented to a veteran’s family, my family lived on the first floor, and downstairs in the basement my grandparents dwelled in cozy comfort and proximity. The first strange thing I noticed as I walked down our hallway was that the doorway to the stairway leading down to their apartment was open. When I went to close it I heard some clanking noises. Thinking that there might be a burglar I quickly went down the carpeted stairs to investigate. Entering their tiny apartment I saw that the rummaging sounds were coming from my grandma’s kitchen. I quietly went down the narrow hallway and looked in. What I saw surprised me. There with her back toward me bending over a cutting board with a large chopping knife was my dear grandmother. She was not away at work but home preparing food. Not to startle her I said in a low voice, “Grandma, what are you doing?” She turned with a smile and answered, “Making mushroom soup for tonight’s dinner.” At once the room became a very special place because everyone in my family knew that grandma’s mushroom soup was out of this world good – and nobody knew her recipe – nobody. The thought flashed through my teenage head: “Now I would find out!” My sweet Polish grandma was the sweetest person I knew and she was a really great cook. “Here – help me cut up the rest of these mushrooms and then put them all into this stock soup pot with this cup of barley and some salt and pepper to simmer for a few hours.” “Is that all there is to it?” I asked somewhat in disbelief. “Oh, I forgot to mention one last ingredient,” she smiled. “At the end I add all the love I have in my heart.” Now, as I live out my life on earth in my turn at old age, I still recall vividly that epiphany moment so centered on the mushroom soup of our family life, and I not only realize how blessed I have been due to the secret ingredient of the personal love of my grandma and parents and brother and relatives and even of my friends as well – but know that this long ago transcendent experience is what has motivated me to care deeply for the well-being of my family and loved ones daily and secretly and very personally. And I want you to know that this special, secret, deep kind of caring includes you and your children – a caring concern -- an embracing sense of responsibility as I greet each of you every morning here at our school. Think of me as an old grandpa who knows for sure that, just as it is with mushroom soup, the secret ingredient of family life is love. Peace, Paul |
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Dear Families,
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