Hello friends,
And hello summer! Just like that we are here on the cusp of the summer solstice. I’m feeling it all right now – excited for summer (yay sunshine!), sad for the school year to end, still confused and uncertain about the pandemic, hopeful as we await a vaccine for kids, enthusiastic for extra time with my kiddo, eager for summer camps, overwhelmed by summer scheduling, and one and on…
A sweet friend recently shared this beautiful excerpt from a book called To Bless the Space Between Us, by John O’Donohue and it totally resonated with me right now. Perhaps it will land with you as well:
“At any time you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing?
At this time in my life, what am I leaving?
Where am I about to enter?
What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold?
What gift would enable me to do it?
A threshold is not a simple boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms and atmospheres. Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up.
At this threshold a great complexity of emotions comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement, sadness, hope. This is one of the reasons such vital crossing were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds; to take your time; to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward. The time has come to cross.”
I love this excerpt. I feel like everyone I encounter has been experiencing this in a multitude of ways. It is true that one cannot cross a threshold without the heart being "woken up" in a myriad of ways.
Later in this book O’Donohue writes about how we never know what destiny has in store for our lives and passing through thresholds is walking a completely unknown path that is continually unfolding before us. He states,
“Each life is a mystery that is never finally available to the mind’s light or questions. That we are here is a huge affirmation; somehow life needed us and wanted us to be. To sense and trust this primeval acceptance can open a vast spring of trust within the heart. It can free us into a natural courage that casts out fear and opens up our lives to become voyages of discovery, creativity, and compassion. No threshold need be a threat, but rather an invitation and a promise.”
How beautiful is that? To see each threshold as an “invitation and a promise” feels like such a refreshing perspective shift. Emerging from a year where there has been SO MUCH uncertainty and change, seeing this next transition in this light feels supportive and like true wisdom. This feels like wisdom from the natural world. Each season is a step on the journey of "discovery, creativity, and compassion." Yes. Yes. Yes.
Here’s to the promise of the threshold upon which you find yourself now standing.
With love and gratitude,
Jordan