Seeker

Have you packed away your Christmas decorations or are you someone who likes to leave them until at least the end of today, the Feast of Epiphany? I took ours down this afternoon, so the house is gradually returning to its normal look. I've posted several times in the past for today's feast on this blog. If you want to take a look you can find links on my Epiphany page .  I wasn't planning to do another post today, but then I came across a story I hadn't heard before. It's about the 'Fourth Wise Man'. Traditionally there were 3 wise men, perhaps only thought of as 3 because they brought 3 expensive gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. The story of the visit of the magi (or wise men) to the child Jesus is only told in Matthew's Gospel and doesn't state a number. There could have been 2, 3, 4 or many more who sought the 'new-born king'. In the story I came across today, the 4th wise man set out but never got to Bethlehem with the others...

'How to tell your story' is a dilemma on my mind. Telling the little stories is relatively easy. Our lives our made up of mini stories, the memories we tell ourselves or tell others. These often get unwittingly changed in the telling or re-interpreted by the hearers. It's telling the big story of a person's life that is harder. Anyone who has had to deliver a tribute at a funeral will know the difficulties of deciding what to include or what to leave out. One of the things I planned to do on retirement was to write my memoirs, not that I am famous or important, or that my life is anything other than ordinary. I got distracted from that task by family history research, which has unexpectedly affected how I see who I am. I have written up some of this. Writing my own life story could benefit me in making sense of my life and also perhaps benefit any of my descendants who are interested in family history, or what life was like when I was young. Should I ever develop de...