The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind. –Khalil Gibran
Good morning Gentle Reader. These times are, indeed, ‘Threshold Times.’ These ‘Threshold Times’ – think the past five years, for example – continue to present us with a number of diverse thresholds of change. They continue to provide us with challenges and opportunities, with darkness and light, with opaqueness and clarity.
During these turbulent times, each threshold reveals the potential for a shift, a change or a transformation. In this place of uncertain potential, in this place of decision inviting-making, we are required to slow down, be patient and be aware of what is happening (awareness is a crucial step in seeking to understand and can benefit us even if we never fully come to understand).
In choosing to discern a threshold we choose to embrace the challenge and to yield to potential growth and change. In order to cross the threshold we often sense, if not directly know, that we must let go of something or we must empty our self in order to make space for the new. We must also do our best to make sure that we have the energy and the commitment so that we can take the step — tentative or determined — that will put us over the threshold.
‘Threshold Times’ can cleanse us of false perceptions; they can also sharpen our perceptions. These perceptions will help us see what depletes us and what nurtures us. ‘Threshold Times’ are our spiritual chrysalises which provide us the times for our four life-dimensions to grow. During these times we heal and we nurture our physical, our intellectual, our emotional and our spiritual dimensions.
My oldest sister and I were estranged when she died suddenly. I was thrown into darkness and grief and I remained there for many months. I so wanted to reverse time and I wanted to be able to step back over that threshold so I could reconcile with her. I wanted to tell her of my love for her. I wanted to thank her for so many things. Slowly, over many months, I began to glimpse little pieces of light and as more light penetrated my dark soul I made a decision that I would never allow myself to be estranged from the other members of my family; this was a commitment I made to myself and to my oldest sister. In more than twenty-seven years now, I have not broken that commitment.
For me, also, the power of a threshold resounds in the resurrection story — from the darkness of the tomb Christ came forth transformed. I-You-We are also given throughout our lives the gift of the ‘tomb’ and we can choose to remain in the darkness or we can choose to use the time of darkness to foster our transformation so that we can move across the threshold into the light. The hope for me is that as long as I am alive I can choose to embrace the ‘Threshold Times’ of my life in such a way that I will emerge changed, if not transformed.
Men who know themselves…stand on the threshold of the door of wisdom. –Havelock Ellis