Thresholds

I’ve been thinking about thresholds, about our life’s journeys and how it moves us closer to the moments in which we find ourselves at the threshold of our new place. And I have been thinking about the threshold space, that brief space in-between two places, two realities, the momentary space that holds both the promises of what is to come and the memories of what is leaving us. Thresholds are not always easy spaces to inhabit; they can be terrifying, too. A lot about ourselves is revealed in those spaces. 

• Thresholds are like mirrors. The anticipation of what is to come can create both excitement and fear. But the threshold itself, as a physical space or a moment in time, is not the container of either one of them. If anything, the threshold is the mirror held before us so that we may see what is present in us, so that we can explore what those emotions are telling us about the things we love, about what matters to us, about how we perceive or understand ourselves. 

• Thresholds hold a promise. The road beyond the threshold we find ourselves in is not carved out yet, but the territory already seems so different from what we leave behind. We cross thresholds because we believe in what is beyond them: fulfillment, healing, a sense of wholeness, adventure. Each journeyer gets to define what the promise is for themselves and, sometimes, those promises are not fully known to us. In those cases, we hold on gently to the hope that beyond the threshold there is, perhaps, goodness waiting for us. 

• Thresholds are moments to pause. The road behind the threshold cannot be traveled again. Recognizing a threshold can give us a moment to reflect on what the journey has been for us. To rejoice in the good, to release what has been hard, to choose what it is that we want to bring forth with us. Unless the circumstances force us to, it is not a bad idea to spend a bit of time here until we feel called to step onto the new space, to cross the threshold. 

• Sometimes the threshold does not lead to one door but to more than one. No matter which one we choose, we know that our lives will be altered forever. We hesitate sometimes to cross the threshold because we fear not just what is ahead, but perhaps, even more so, losing what we are leaving behind. 

• Thresholds are not always easy to recognize, sometimes we just realize we have crossed one after the fact. But they are more common than we expect, they are simple, so ordinary that we failed to recognize their significance. We know changing schools, changing jobs, meeting a life milestone, making a big decision. But there are others that are more ordinary; like saying goodbye to the simple things that we later recognize as significant. Some thresholds we do not choose, but life presents to us, unexpectedly. 

Thresholds are sacred spaces. In the anticipation and fear, in the anxiety and doubt we may be able to touch the depth of our being. The holy moments of transition that set a before and an after are blessed by the divine presence of Love and tenderness, they are blessed by hope and beauty. Ask yourself if there is a threshold you may be approaching, or that you are being invited to cross. Pay attention to what shows up for you, and to how you are showing up for this transition. Ask yourself, what is it being revealed to me through this process? Pay attention to what may be making this threshold sacred for you and what invisible Love is holding you as you begin to cross it.