Sunday Musings - August 29, 2021
Liminal space
If one looks up the definition of liminal space one learns it comes from the Latin root, limen which means “threshold” - the crossing over space or the space where you have left something behind, yet you are not yet someplace else.
The title of the podcast conversation on On Being this week is “Borders are Liminal Spaces. This episode features a conversation between host Krista Tippett and the writer, teacher, activist Luis Alberto Urrea. As a child of the blend of the Mexican-American marriage of his parents, he travels from the United States to Mexico to the United States; from his ancestors to his dance as an professor and a writer. He calls upon the ancestral roots which each of us carries; the roots which speak not of borders but of thresholds crossed and those yet to be crossed.
We live in a time when many of us seem to cling to a story which have been crafted out of selected pieces. These may provide a measure of temporary comfort. Some of us cling to a larger story - a story of possibilities yet to be realized.
The details of the story of the past we tell ourselves may determine whether or not we are able to move forward. Perhaps many of us will attempt to straddle the threshold holding tight to imposed limits of our past story while others of us may decide to learn from the past story while embracing the possibilities of a story which has yet to be written. The paradox, of course, is we cannot be fully present in a new story without embracing the story of what has seemingly past.
Those individuals who are living with PTSD as a result of combat experience or other trauma can only heal as they embrace the often ugly and painful truth of the trauma. There was a time when it was believed that one could help trauma victims heal by letting go of the past. Eventually it was discovered that healing only begins when one is able, without shame or guilt, to cross the threshold into the present bringing the reality of their past with them. Luis Alberto Urrea might say that we must bring us with us as we embrace the fact that there is only us. He might also say that we bear witness to the pieces of each other which are reflected in each other.
In the Christian tradition there is the concept of Grace which may be used as a noun or a verb. As a verb it is the act of unconditional love which the teacher Jesus taught. As a noun it is that all encompassing canopy which Luis Urrea describes so eloquently in the opening poem of
The Tijuana Book of the Dead, “You Who Seek Grace from a Distracted God.” In this poem as he views the collection of neighbors who bring a rich array of stories he recognizes as himself which is to say everyone (my words) and says:
“you who have no words
want to cup their cheeks in your hands,
you want to hold their faces between your palms.
you want to say it - say it, you have nothing
to lose -Just say it: Say
I love you. I love you.
I love you. I love you.
I love you. I love you.”
Giving ourselves permission to embrace love for each other might be the most revolutionary act any of us can today perform. I love you. I love you. I love you.
As we stand on the threshold of a new week - a new beginning - each of us must decide what we will bring with us and how open we are to a future. Clearly, we cannot afford to leave behind the past or fail to be open to the “us” of the future. Clearly, we must be open to “hearing” and “seeing” it is always us and never them.
Written August 29, 2021
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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