Anna and Simeon
Just returned from a retirement party, and finding myself wistful about what I do and who I work with and all the memory that comes with that. This rumination has taught me a lesson of late: never underestimate what the power of waiting can yield in your life, in your perspective. There’s not a need to be right, or the best in the room, or accomplished in a way that takes anything away from anyone else—just a need to be who you are and give what you do to those who surround you, in the sure knowledge that in some way you have made a mark in their lives that may stand the test of time. The party came on the heels of reflecting on the passages of my current study for the 19th Annotation, the passage about Simeon and Anna, waiting in the temple for what had been a long time, after much experience and daily striving in their own lives, to faithfully meet the Christ-child entering in nestled in his mother’s arms. Simeon gets a worded statement, and Anna does not, but both, clear...