 Here we stand in the in-between, the doorway from one year to the next. I was born at this in-between time. I was starting life on the last day of the year, when everyone else (except my birthday twins) was closing a chapter and readying to pick up with the new. It is a strange time to have a birthday (in my experience). Lots of energy, lots of expectations, and a celebration where the focus isn’t really on the present but what’s to come when the clock strikes midnight. For me, birthdays are joyous certainly, and they also conjure up deep reflections within. This paradox is much like standing in a threshold - you are neither here nor there, OR maybe you are both here and there.
In my tradition, thresholds are something to be sanctified. We place a ritual object called a mezuzah within our doorframes. This relic for me is a deep reminder that beauty and the divine can inhabit the smallest of spaces. And no matter how small or large a space is, it can be a place for contemplation, connection, and devotion. At this gate of the new year, I invite you into reflection with me. Not to change anything (you can if you want), but to take account of your life lived. To create space for what dwells inside you: your hopes, dreams, frustrations, disappointments, resentments, insecurities, talents, grief, gifts, and everything else which resides in your being-ness. Where are the thresholds inside you - the places where two emotions, two feelings, two thoughts touch? What is the smallest drop of reverence and devotion you can invite into this internal threshold? What oh-so-very-ordinary, mundane space inside you can you adorn with a sacred, beautiful energy to show how miraculous the ordinary truly is? I hope as you move into this next year, the threshold is a space where you can leave behind what no longer serves you, and step into the mantle of wisdom, compassion, gentleness, and knowing. Blessings, Valerie
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Living a spiritual life in our modern world is a layered experience. We need to hold the individual and all of their layers, society and all of its facets, the levels of reality, and the cycle of action and reflection deepening in daily life. There are a lot of subtle moving parts to account for and tend to. In many traditions this is not an individual experience. But in a society where spirituality is quantified and turned into a commodity our spiritual lives are often broken into parts instead of honored in its infinite layers. Instead, we are encouraged to be spiritual on our own time and individually.
But we are wired for connection. Connection to Self, other humans, Spirit, nature, and the unseen world around us. We need help interpreting our symbolic selves & holding the paradox that is life. We need spaces where we can ask questions freely, share vulnerably, and process openly. We need people and places that tend our souls and hold space while we do the deep, subtle work of our Spirit & Souls. |
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