So it's still cold....but the sun is out, the sky is blue and the wind is light....and my mood is a little "lighter". We saw friends yesterday for lunch and dominoes...always fun. And today I walked to the Downer Theater around the corner to see "House of Gucci". This is our nice independent movie theater and there were only five of us at the noon showing of a really good film.
Earlier in the morning I went on line for the service at First Church here on the east side....the Unitarian Church we used to attend while living in Bay View. Megan and Mike were married there and we were members for about seven years. We sort of drifted away when a new minister took over and we were not thrilled with her Sunday sermons.....so we've been "churchless" for quite awhile.
I listened to UU services at the church in Mequon on some Sundays during the first year of lock down....it gave me something else to think about. So today I decided to go back to First Church and listen in. I missed the first fifteen minutes but still.....the message gave me something to consider. The minister was in the middle of her remarks and kept using the term "liminal space" and I had zero idea what that meant.
So I went to trusty Google and found that author and Franciscan friar Richard Rohr describes this space as: 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.
The article went on to say that "these thresholds of waiting and not knowing our 'next' are inevitable and most are incredibly disruptive. A liminal space is the time between the 'what was' and the 'next'. It is a season of transition, a season of waiting, and not knowing."
Hmmmm......maybe the world has been in liminal space since early 2020. Sounds about right to me. I'm not sure I want to follow Rohr's suggestion that we get there and stay there as long possible, but still the phrase echoed as something that describes how I feel about the now.
I think I'll try to log on again next Sunday and maybe find something else to ponder.
I think Richard Rohr is really good. He is not tied to the traditional Catholic theology/ideology. He has some written some really good works. I keep going back to his "The Universal Christ." I think the "liminal" state of mind is when we have something that puts us in awe, gives us a glimpse of how things could be much more open than we ever thought possible. It's like the feeling when standing at the Grand Canyon.
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