THRESHOLDS, PART II

The mystics counsel us that spiritual transformation requires sustained nurturing [a reminder that ‘transformation’ is a fundamental change in character or structure].  Our commitment and our capacity to sustain spiritual transformation is often hindered, if not interrupted, when we discover that we are unsure, or hesitant, or full of doubt and angst or when we simply question — especially when we frame questions from that deep place of not-knowing.  At these times, the mystics remind us, that we become aware that we would rather be someplace else rather than on this particular threshold.  It is at these times that we make like a rabbit and run away (or is it hop?).  We know, deep down inside, that if we remain committed and step over the threshold that we will never be the same again and because we don’t know, truly know, what lies on the other side of the threshold we are filled with a little dread and perhaps fear.  It is no accident that the most often used words in the Torah, the New Testament and the Qu’ran are ‘Be Not Afraid.’

Now it is true that not all threshold experiences are so daunting, nor are they so transformational.  Some are quite manageable and we nurture our spirit in more gentle and yet just as profound ways.  I have been nurtured by crossing the threshold in response to a poem, or a story, or even a sentence or a word.  These ‘seeds’ enter into my spirit-garden, into my soul, into my heart and I savor them into life.  I might find myself questioning a long-held truth, for example.  Or I might find myself considering something I had dismissed as not worthy of my time and energy.  Some of these thresholds open pathways of peace — when I cross the threshold of ‘living in the moment’ I can experience this type of peace.  Some of these thresholds open the pathways to deep, or deeper, relationships.  Some of these thresholds help me cross over from ‘being asleep’ to ‘being awake and aware.’  Some of these thresholds lead me onto a path that brings discomfort, uneasiness, dis-ease, anxiety, and pain.  Some of these thresholds, I have experienced, open the pathway to the ‘dark night of the soul’ and some of these thresholds open the way to the wasteland — not the desert.  Some of these thresholds open the pathway to the land of the lost.

No matter which of these are presented to you-me-us, thresholds connect the mundane with the mysterious [or is it ‘mystery’?]; they connect you-me-us to both to the commonplace and the awesome. Thresholds ‘call’ us to a different territory; they open the road-less-traveled to us.  The word ‘threshold’ originally referred to the doorway leading to the place where the threshing of grain occurred.  Beyond the entrance lay the place of separating the wheat from the chaff.  Do I really want to know what is the wheat of my being and what is the chaff?  Do I really want to separate them?  The types of thresholds I am thinking about invite me to consider these two stretching questions.

Am I willing to frame these thresholds as a gift?  I have experienced that when I choose to step over one or more of these thresholds and enter into the land of the unknown that I am affirming that I do want to grow, that I do want to become wiser and healthier, that I do want to lose some of the burdens that weigh me down and that hinder my development.  Am I willing to be a bit more aware of these types of thresholds that will open before me today?  Am I willing, then, to step across just one of them today?  I am not sure, right now I feel more like the rabbit ready to run (or is it hop?).