When I was asked to write about “the moment of epiphany”, I must admit I was royally stumped. Stumped – something that rarely happens to me except at, say, the dessert cart at an all-you-can-eat buffet spread.
Then I thought about it a little more. At first thought, the moment of epiphany may seem like this single big idea that hits you and makes you sit bolt upright. Well, yes, it is that. But it is a lot more too. V.S. Naipaul puts it nicely: “Small things start us in new ways of thinking.”
The moment of having an epiphany isn’t that one earth-shattering moment of clarity that makes one leap out of the bath tub shouting “Eureka!” (The only thing that ever had me yelling and tearing out of a bathroom in a hurry was a gecko – no word of a lie.)
Maya Angelou said that everybody probably has 250 epiphanies. Each epiphany builds itself on a previous epiphany. The way you’re changed at the age of 10 sets the stage for the way you change at 15. “But you couldn’t have changed at 15 had you not had that change at 10,” she goes on to say. Wise words from a woman who never fails to inspire.
So if you’re sitting there thinking, “Hmm, I’ve never had that single big earth-shattering moment – when the clouds parted and a clear vision presented itself to me”, please stop. It’s not about the number of epiphanies you experience. It’s really about learning to recognise them, no matter how trivial they may seem.
We have got to learn to notice those tiny moments that spur us in a different, better direction. Moments that help steel our resolve, lend perspective and build courage to strike out anew.
Those small things could come in various forms for each of us. It could be something as mundane as that sudden “Aha!” moment as a student when you spot the sneaky culprit in an Accountancy class Balance Sheet that was wreaking havoc. It could be more dramatic moments such as the bitter end of a relationship that suddenly shows you the way forward and makes you aware of the mental strength and firm resolve you never knew you had. For us writer folks, I think of a creative epiphany as the mental “Big O”.
Or it could be the dawn of a simple solution to a common everyday problem for people that hits you as you pop into the local coffee shop for your morning cuppa – the kind of idea that, five years down the line, has someone saying, “Hey, that’s neat. Why didn’t anyone think of that before?” (Psst… Sheroes is a good example of that!)
And finally, let’s just stop moaning on about how all the great ideas have been had and how bereft of new visions we are as time goes on. Let’s learn to recognise and appreciate the myriad moments of epiphany that we experience. They matter. Yes, all 250 of them.
And anyway, who’s keeping count?