An epiphany is moment of insight, realization, or clarity - a special moment that can be "framed."
Illuminations I + II
Olaf Schauerte
an epiphany
a short moment of insight
like a bright halo
all my empty thoughts
washed away by the insight -
an epiphany
Free as the Wind
Alexandra Possy Berry Quenum
When I was young, I used to go to the south of France with my parents for the summer holidays. It was always nice to vacation there and to play with other children on the beach. When I was five, my parents registered me at a sailing school for young children. As I already knew how to swim, I learned immediately how to sail alone. In the morning, we had courses with teachers to show us sailing techniques and in the afternoon, we applied in the boat what we had learned in the morning. But we did not have permission to sail out of the shallow water. It went on like that for a week and then, one day, we were allowed to sail on the sea, far away from the beach.
The weather was sunny and breezy, but not windy. The water was glistening; blue and green shades were dancing together and the pale blue sky seemed to belong to them. I took my small sailing boat, number 16, put my life-jacket on, pushed the boat in the water and jumped in it. I began to row in order to go out of the swimming area and after a few meters I was able to set sail. Of course, our instructors watched and followed us with other boats, but each one of us was nevertheless alone on board.
Quickly, I outdistanced all my friends and found myself alone in the middle of nowhere. Everything was quiet and the village far away looked like a miniature town. The water was still but its slow swing made my boat dance on the rhythm of the little waves. I felt free. For the first time in my life, I was able and allowed to decide what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. This moment was magic and everything looked beautiful. But after a few minutes, I had to go back because the instructors thought I had sailed too far away. I could not stop smiling, however, as I sailed back, still thinking about the moment I had just experienced.
My moment.
Learning to Stay on Track
Verena Gudelius
One day we (two friends and myself) were walking home from school over the railway although our parents had forbidden it. They thought it was dangerous, but we could not understand that prohibition. We were convinced that our parents were petty and wanted to prevent us from having fun. If we heard a train coming we would have plenty of time to jump off the tracks. The prohibition made the tracks even more desirable and our walk more adventurous.
We were talking with each other when we suddenly heard the noise of a train coming nearer to us. Immediately we started to run along the rails. We ran and ran and were not even thinking about jumping down from the tracks. We had the impression that the train was coming closer and then we stopped running. At that moment we discovered
it was only our imagination. No train was coming at all.
That experience made me understand that people in panic situations do not behave rationally. They act strange and even crazy, and cannot be condemned for that.
Years later I discovered another thing and that was that parents are sometimes right.
The Maths Epiphany
Vanessa Gerhards
I am going to tell you now all about my maths epiphany and what happened afterwards.
In the beginning there was Mr N. He was the reason for my epiphony. As he was a rather young and enthusiastic, not to mention fat and slimy teacher, he thought that he could make me interested in mathematics. Well, he was wrong. After a few lessons with him it struck me like a thunderbolt: I will never be able to understand this maths stuff! This was a real epiphany! I realized that this subject is and always will be a book with seven seals for me. It just was not my destiny to become a maths genius.
Then, after Mr N., Mr G. followed. Mr G. can be described as a small and tricky creature. Somehow he managed to implant at least a little bit of maths knowledge in my brain. Concerning the more complicated structures with x's and y's and unknown numbers he failed, too. But he made a suggestion to improve my learning ability. Mr G. told me that I should attend an autogenic training course. Actually, I never attended such a course and stayed as unimproved as I was before. After this short excursus to meditation and hippie culture, a tiny young lady called Ms K. stepped on stage. She tried her best but just like the poor teachers before her, she failed in the worst way.
Then, after all those failures, they decided to send the only teacher possibly capable of making me understand algebra and analysis into the race. This lonely warrior, the mastermind among teachers, the ruler over numbers, diagrams and logarithms, the "math-inator": Mr H. At least the ones who sent him thought this way about him and his abilities. How can I describe him? Well, he always unwillingly appeared to be a clown. Nobody really respected him - except of course for those who intended to be examined by him in the "Abitur." I wonder why all math teachers seem to be outsiders. Concerning his outward appearance there is only one thing to say: gross and weird. Apart from that he definitely needed a deodorant spray. At the moment when Mr H. stepped into my maths life, I had already given up. I was not interested in anything connected with this subject. But in facing the "mission impossible" of trying to teach me, Mr H. was quite brave and idealistic. I really admired him when he used "Stabilo"-ball pens to put up two intersecting planes with different directions in a three dimensional diagram. He thought that we were all listening to him but in reality we nearly slept. In my last year at school he was the victim of the last row of pupils. Poor man! He only wanted to teach us all about vectors. But he failed. At least concerning the members of the last row.
In the end I have to admit that my knowledge of mathematics is rather thin. But I do not think that I will have to use maths in the position I plan to attain: As the chair-woman of a publishing house operating worldwide, I intend to have employees to do those things for me!
The Best Chapter?
Kevin Risch
In the early morning hours I drove back from my former grammar school in Attendorn. There I had enjoyed a musical which reminded me of the days when I was on my school stage singing Don Parker in Gaudi two years ago. I felt nostalgic, happy about my accomplishments but sad that those experiences were over. The grammar school had given me a sense of achievement and security. I had many friends and I was well known. And then the musical Gaudi. It was the best period of time I have ever had and perhaps will ever have in my life.
That is what I thought about sitting alone in my car. And I had an idea. What if time could be turned back? Wouldn't that be wonderful? I had the feeling that I wanted to be forever young. I did not want to grow up because the time at school was so rewarding.
But yet I cannot give up the hope that the future has even better chapters in store for me
To Let Everything Drop
Angela Holzhauer
Some time ago I often had the problem that when I was lying in bed and trying to fall asleep, unsettling thoughts ran through my mind. They troubled me so much that I had many nervous and sleepless nights. I bet you too have had such midnight thoughts as "Are the decisions that I have made for my further life really right? Or "What will happen when a person I love very much dies suddenly, leaving a cruel emptiness in my life?"
But one day I had a little experience which helped me to overcome the tormenting thoughts and provided me with a strategy I still use. I was again lying in my bed and my imagination was occupied with the topic of what I would do when our house caught on fire. What for heaven's sake would I try to save from my burning room? How should I rescue my beautiful secretaire from the flames? Well, I had to confess to myself that I was not capable of rescuing it anyhow, because it is too heavy and too large...
Suddenly, something like a voice in my mind said: "Look, Angela, it doesn't matter at all. You are very tired. Let every burden drop - you need nothing but yourself to be content!"
Pardon, I think I didn't get that!
But then I saw myself standing alone somewhere, smiling, stretching my arms out at my side, palms open. With this picture in my mind, I felt all at once very released and easy, free from everything, and slightly surprised that I was not dependent on anyone or anything, that I can exist in the most basic way, only my person, breathing and smiling.
No, please do not misunderstand me! In everyday life, I would not like to renounce the things I love, like my family, my friends, my room, my secretaire...But every time I have such painful and sleep-stealing thoughts, I recall the picture of me with the opened, all-dropping hands, and it is no longer a problem for me to fall asleep, entirely relaxed.
Darkness
Verena Gudelius
When I walk through a city at night I always have a strange feeling. Could it not be possible that the next house-entry hosts a dark criminal creature? Have I not seen a shadow coming nearer? Was there not a murder last month? Does this group of people over there not look really dangerous? Do I like darkness? No, not at all!!
These were my feelings until I discovered that I had not experienced complete darkness before. It is not really dark in a city by night. Everywhere there is light: advertisements shine, street lamps give light and even the moon and the stars shine and make the night bright. These thoughts came to my mind when I discovered total blackness in a cave. The only lights inside the mountain were the carbide lamps which we wore on our helmets. When we switched off these lamps we were locked in a deepest night. The thought hit me that the blackness was nothing threatening or dangerous. Instead it was something tender and lovely. I felt totally secure. The hecticness of everyday life was gone. The clock did not reign anymore. The feeling for the different periods of the day faded away. I can say now that I spent some of my most pleasant hours in complete darkness. Therefore darkness is not something to fear. It can bring joy and time to think about life.
Seeing the Light
Katharina Funke
It happened a couple of years ago when I still went to grammar school - a very old building which used to be a convent in former times. On a dark winter morning I was the first pupil to arrive at school; I was there right when the headmaster unlocked the doors. I went in, not turning on the lights, and walked down a long and quiet corridor, lit only by the cathedral-like light reflecting through the mosaic windows. Only a few moments later, the next pupils entered the school, immediately switched on the electric lights and started the usual school noise. I saw the school in a different "light" that morning and wished that that all the pupils who thought they hated our school could have the same experience.
Heroic Step
Katrin Latsch
Six years ago I was with my class in Austria for our final excursion. We had fun skiing in the mornings and partying in the evenings. But one evening I felt depressed. I
don't remember why. My friends tried in vain to cheer me up. For some reason I thought a night walk would help, and just at that moment a teacher came into our room and
invited us for a night walk. Bingo! This must be destiny, I felt happily.
The walk was indeed wonderful. Finally I could laugh again, for the fresh air gave me new vigor. In the end we climbed a hill and then I saw something of unbelievable
beauty, something I'll never forget. I looked down into a valley which was surrounded by huge mountains.The valley was covered with a carpet knotted from wafts of mist. Lights of the valley shone through the carpet, matched by the innumerable stars above. At this moment I felt so big and full of energy that I was sure I could walk upon the fog carpet,
if only I dared.
Holidays in a Tube of Suntan Lotion
Judith Karla
This is an epiphany which occurs to me quite often: When I tidy up my bathroom and find suntan lotion from the previous summer, I smell it and suddenly have to close my eyes, because it reminds me so much of my last holidays that it strikes me like a vision. In my mind's eye everything appears again: the crossing by ferry to Sardinia, the people I met on the ship while lying on the deck, enjoying the sun; the arrival in the port and late at night in the camp, the days and nights on the beach,the parties, the beautiful landscape - all the things we enjoyed together and which made strangers friends. When I recollect this time so very vividly, it often happens that I really feel the need to call up one of the friends I became acquainted with there at once, because I still have contact with quite a few of them. I think it is fascinating that there are things like the smell of suntan oil or certain sounds which evoke beautiful recollections this clearly. And, besides, they make me look forward to the next holidays, which I am going to spend on Sardinia again. And perhaps - who knows? - I might see someof the people whom I enjoyed being with last summer!
Triviality or How to Solve Daily Problems
(based on an experience during community service)
Dennis Röder
I look at his face contorted with pain,
I look in his eyes wet with tears.
NO WAY OUT.
No way to speak
No way to move
No way to eat or drink
Slowly losing his human feeling.
The room is cold.
He is sleeping now - far away from his nightmare
Locked in his own body.
2000 days like this.
What a life!
Escape, disappear, away from this place!
Running alone, running till I can run no more
Towards the sun
Towards the bright yellow sun.
Feeling tired and exhausted,
Lying in the grass
Watching the sunrays find their way through the treetops
Gently touching my face
Covering my body with loving care.
Forget about time!
THIS IS THE HERE AND NOW.
Enjoy the silence
Enjoy this LIFE.
I can shout, I can live, I LIVE!
I imagine his face smiling tenderly at me.
I go home.
I don't want to argue.
I let my sister have the car.
Moving Movie Music
Achim Zeuch
I remember an epiphany which happened to me in the summer of 1996. At that time my parents had left the house for a three-week holiday. My friend and I had been celebrating with others for nearly two weeks. It was late in the evening and the house was a mess but we were too tired to tidy up. We decided to take a rest from celebrating too at least for one day. I was already prepared to sleep when my friend suggested smoking a last cigarette and taking some fresh air. After he had opened the window in my room, he drew a deep breath and took a long look at the stars. I did the same. It was a clear night, the light in my room was off and in the background the music of the movie composer Ennio Morricone could be heard. After we had lighted our cigarettes we began musing on the last several days. Then suddenly it happened. We had just stopped talking when in the background one of the saddest, most moving themes by Morricone started to play. Neither of us talked. Somehow I knew my friend felt the same. Even when the music had stopped we remained silent for quite awhile. It was beautiful. I felt the cosmos had an order and we had a place in it. It was the first time in my life that I experienced a moment of complete clarity
Film Silence
Nadine Buderath
This 'special moment' seems to be a rather normal situation at first glance; everyone is moved by a film from time to time. But this experience involved the whole audience.
One day I went to the cinema with two friends, Angela and Tanja. We wanted to see the film "Dead Man Walking." As it was only five o'clock, there were not very many spectators. Then the film started. Those who have seen the film too will know how deeply it goes under one's skin. Usually as soon as the word "END" appears on the screen, the spectators leave the room as if they are fleeing - this evening it was totally different:
The film had ended and the final credits began. But my friends, the other people, and I remained sitting in our seats, still watching the screen and listening to the film song by Eddie Vedder. Nobody spoke a word. Every viewer sat in the darkness with his or her own thoughts. Then the last words disappeared and we silently left the cinema.
Relativity
Katharina Loos
I once had an epiphany which never stopped occurring to me in various situations from that day on. I was sitting in an airplane for the first time in my life. The take-off was very exciting but when we were finally in the air, flying calmly across the Atlantic Ocean, I had already grown used to the new situations and felt as if I never did anything other than flying. Most of the passengers had fallen asleep. It was very silent on board when I looked out of the little window to my left and saw a white ship sailing across the seemingly endless blue water.
Who were the people on the ship? What were they doing? Were they perhaps looking up at me exactly at the same moment I was looking down at them? Could it be that there was a girl on that ship who was asking herself the same questions about my plane as I was asking about her ship?
These thoughts fascinated me. It was amazing to become aware of the fact that I really was the only one who had insight into my thoughts and feelings; everybody else had to remain an outsider to my life. Things which were important for me were of course sometimes nothing more than common and daily for others: Everything was relative, nothing static, defined only by the position from which one looks at it.
Another example occurred during the same holidays. On the way back home we spent three days in New York. Reaching the city in another plane, our group was so very much excited that we started cheering, even schrieking when the Statue of Liberty appeared on the right side of the plane. My head was full of stories from the American past, about ships full of people searching for a new and better life in the New World landing in this very harbor. I was overwhelmed. The man sitting next to me, a 40-year-old businessman looked at me and asked with a little smile, "Your first time in New York?" As I answered "Yes," he nodded knowingly, and suddenly I saw the city through his eyes: no great difference to all the other cities in America - loud, grey, exhausting, anonymous, whereas to me it meant everything.
Isn't it absurd how life depends on the way you look at it?!
Painful Haiku I + II
Isabella Boboc
Produce life and death
Give them the power to hurt
Never-ending pain
Be available
For anyone who wants you -
Suffer, cry, renounce
Silence
Isabella Boboc
Have you ever heard such a silence?
It's so loud your ears seem to explode.
Is it painful or is it salutary? Peaceful silence?
No, definitely not. It isn't peaceful at all.
It's the kind of silence which induces madness, depression or even - what? - inner death: suicide.
It's too loud!
But how can silence be loud, how can it be heard at all? No vibrations, but still picked up by the ears.
Hear that? - What?
Don't know, maybe my soul is crying for release.
I have the whole world within me and am in danger of exploding as it grows bigger each moment of my life.
Let it flow out; it's the only way you can survive.
But survive for what? To become intoxicated again? Intoxicated by the world or what it pretends to be and then again, suddenly, silence. Complete loneliness. No rescue, no escape, no freedom.
Only me and me alone. But still, that's not the real me. It's fake, a mask, no, mask is the wrong word, it's a skin, only the exterior part of what "me" really is.
I would like to wash it down, pull it down, throw it away and let "me" be what I am.
Rescue "me" from inner pain, inner struggle, inner feeling of inferiority.
Let me be strong.
Are we to live, really "live" just single moments and then fall asleep?
Give me a breath of sun-heated air, a taste of my own senses.
Let "me" come to life, let me dive into oceans of pure feelings.
Let silence be healing.
Let silence be peaceful.
Let silence be a source of energy, of strength to live and not merely survive.
The sun is shining.
It was shining the whole time I was writing, but now it is glowing, warming the curtains on which its beams of light fall.
"Come and let me fill you with my light."
"I will."
Who am I?
Isabella Boboc
I'm the truth
I'm icy smooth
I show you inverse worlds
Within my perfect circle
I even split invisibility into dazzling joy
[Answer: RORRIM]