I'm getting dizzy from oscillating between fighting for freedom and living in it. You know, freedom from fears, freedom from the sluggishness of choosing to drown out the fear. Three steps forward, two and nine-tenths step back. Trying to celebrate that one-tenth, baby! So I loved this when a friend sent it through. I think you will too:
Life can become problem-solving, fixing, explaining, and taking sides with winners and losers It can be a pretty circular and even nonsensical existence. Instead, we have to allow ourselves to be drawn into sacred space, liminality. All transformation takes place there. We have to move out of ‘business as usual’ and remain on the ‘threshold’ (limen, in Latin) where we are betwixt and between. There, the old world is left behind, but we’re not sure of the new one yet.
That’s a good space. Get there often and stay as long as you can by whatever means possible. It’s the realm where God can best get at us because we are out of the way. In sacred space the old world is able to fall apart, and the new world is able to be revealed. If we don’t find liminal space in our lives, we start idolizing normalcy. We end up believing it;s the only reality, and our lives shrivel. (Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs)
I'm also listening to material on the priority of maintaining connection: with your children, partner, friends. When you need to say something difficult, you can do it if the connection is already strong, yes? If there connection is shaky, the relationship might not be able to handle the strain of sorting through the conflict. Just now, Geronimo is being VERY 'geronimo'. He is reeeally hard to handle, especially as the day wears on, and often bears the brunt of my frustration in the form of yelling, angry looks, and unkind words. I am having more success, though, in tempering my reactions and working to maintain a connection with him. It feels good and it's very good timing to be thinking on this stuff just as he seems to be going through a particularly difficult stage. I guess that's one of those 'one-tenths' I'm celebrating.
And you? What's your 'one-tenth'? Or is it a whole 'one'?! I hope so.
