Liminal space
Liminal Space. A friend used this term to refer to this time between Christmas and New Year’s. What an interesting expression to use for this weird time where nothing really seems to happen and we never are very certain of what day of the week it is or what we should be doing or at what time.
Liminal space is described as the time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next’. “It is a place of transition, a season of waiting, and not knowing.”
As I contemplate this description for this odd week between the two holidays, I realize that this whole year has felt like a liminal space. A year of not knowing, and what felt like a global pause. For many of us, including me, a year of pivoting and transitioning. On our planet we have witnessed so much grief, fear, anxiety, sadness, and anger this year- but I have also felt so much compassion, community, support, hope and love. I hope you felt it too.
Liminal space is where transformation can happen, between the past and what is coming next - if we are patient and let change happen.
So during this week, during this liminal space within the largest liminal space perhaps ever experienced, I feel a stillness, a sense of peace and a strong sense of hope for what is next. I wonder, are you feeling it too?
Find your liminal space
“Liminal space is where we are betwixt and between the familiar and the completely unknown. There alone is our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence. That’s a good space where genuine newness can begin. Get there often and stay as long as you can by whatever means possible...This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, and a bigger world is revealed. If we don’t encounter liminal space in our lives, we start idealizing normalcy”. (Richard Rohr)
