'You Need to Leave Now' [A Personal Epiphany]

Ibu, Made, dan Saya - Bedulu, Bali 2001

Epiphanies can come in all shapes and sizes. By definition they almost always occur in the most unexpected of places and ways - including the basement of a college theater on an idle Saturday afternoon.

It was late in the winter of 2000 and I was finishing up a day of work in the Sound and Light Shop of Hamline University’s Theater Department. I remember the sound of the door closing as it echoed up and down the tunnel beneath the stage. I remember the feel of my footsteps against the smooth concrete, the cold smell of the air, and the slight buzzing of the few fluorescent lights that were still on. I remember that the door to the costume shop was open, that Kathy - the shop supervisor - was finishing up a project for the day, and that she turned to me and said, quite plainly, “You need to leave now. . .”

The rest of the conversation is a bit blurred: I needed to see the world. I had everything too planned out. I was riding for a fall. I needed to switch things up, be surprised. There was mention of studying abroad and of Indonesia. None of which we had spoken of before or, for that matter, have spoken of since. 

Like lightning, the conversation struck out of the blue and then it was gone. Like lightning, the exchange left its mark. 

To this day I don’t know what sparked it. What I did know (what I do know) is that in that flash there was truth. I went home that night and flipped TV Channels; Indonesia was everywhere. The next week I went to the study abroad office and said, “I think I need to go to Indonesia.” The rest, as they say, is history. 

A year after that chance encounter beneath the Anne Simley Theater, I found myself studying abroad on the tropical Island of Bali for my final semester of college. From there I moved on to Apple Valley, to Tanzania,  to Luther Sem, to Yale Div, and (now) to Southeast Asia once again - each time trusting flashes of insight to light the way.

It’s been a wild, wonderful path to follow, and one that might have remained unexplored had Kathy not spoken, had I not heard, had the Spirit not stirred.

Epiphanies abound all around. Are you listening?


Originally written as part of my Feb 2013 Newsletter - 'Word on the Wind.' You can access the full newsletter here.