On the Threshold

Daniel wanted to sleep in his sleeping bag--half in his bedroom and half in the hallway.  As I was having our goodnight talk, he remarked that school was over and summer was starting.  He also knew that there was a lot we didn't know--we didn't know where we'd be living come August 20.  We didn't know if we'd be buying land and renovating a house and building a treehouse or not.  We didn't know if instead we'd be traveling around the world for the next year.  There's just a lot we didn't know.  I told him "You're doing just what we all are doing--lying down on the threshold.  A threshold is a space between spaces--and that's where our whole family is right now.  That's where we've been for the last several months.  And you are doing that right now."  The next night he slept on the threshold again, and he explained all of this to Jill--while they were saying goodnight.

Well, living on the threshold (or the liminal space--the space between spaces) can be unsettling.  But Daniel set the example for us all.  He found peace and rested in that in-between space.  That's what we continued to try to do--live in peace while we awaited news on a loan that might let us confirm whether or not we would buy the land we hoped to buy. 

That was three nights ago.  And now we know that we WILL be buying land and renovating and building and growing and making deeper roots in this community during this coming sabbatical year.  We are grateful to know, but also trying to avoid forgetting that threshold space--that liminal space.  It is in such places and times that it is most easy to connect to the divine and be most open and aware that all of life around us is one big miracle.