Next In-person walk: Saturday, September 13, 9-10 a.m.
Covenant Presbyterian Church back parking lot, 2222 at Mo-Pac, Austin
Next Zoom discussion: No Zoom meeting this month
Walk In: Losing Our Lives by Letting the Old Fall Away
The Celtic Practice of Thresholds
“Thresholds are the space between, when we move from one time to another, as in the threshold of dawn to day or of dusk to dark; one space to another, as in times of inner or outer journeying or pilgrimage; and one awareness to another, as in times when our old structures start to fall away, and we begin to build something new. The Celts describe thresholds as ’thin times or places’ where heaven and earth are closer together and the veil between worlds is thin…We encounter thresholds each day through the movement across the hinges of time. The turning of early morning and evening were thought to be especially graced times of day when the otherworld was near…We encounter threshold in our experience as well – those time when life shifts, sometimes out of choice, and often because of circumstance…If you are in a place of discernment in your life, as season of pondering the next steps, then you are on a threshold as well. Thresholds are liminal times when the past season has come to a close but there is a profound unknowing of what will come next. Thresholds are challenging because they demand that we step into the in-between place of letting go of what has been while awaiting what is still to come. When we are able to fully release our need to control the outcome, thresholds become rich and graced places of transformation. We can only become something new when we have released the old faces we have been wearing, even if it means not knowing quite who we are in the space between.”
From The Soul’s Slow Ripening, Christine Valters Paintner
Questions
To meet a threshold with wisdom requires recognizing the shape of the space we are within.
What is falling away in your life? Where is night turning to day or vice versa?
What past season may be coming to a close? Where are you sensing profound unknowing?
What “old face” are you ready to release?
Center: Meeting the Holy One Within a Threshold
Crossing the Threshold
Many times today I will cross over a threshold.
I hope I will catch a few of those times.
I need to remember that my life is, in fact,
a continuous series of thresholds,
from one moment to the next,
from one thought to the next,
from one action to the next.
Help me appreciate how awesome this is.
How many are the chances to be really alive…
to be aware of the enormous dimension
we live within.
On the threshold, the entire past
and the endless future
rush to meet one another.
They take hold of each other and laugh.
They are so happy to discover themselves
in the awareness of a human creature.
On the threshold the present breaks all boundaries.
It is convergence,
a fellowship with all time and space.
We find You there, and we are found by You there.
Help me cross into the present moment –
Into wonder, into Your grace;
That “now-place,” where we all are,
Unfolding as Your life moment by moment.
Let me live on the threshold as threshold.
Questions
Where are your past and future meeting right now?
Standing in that space of convergence, refusing to be in the past or the future, do you sense the Presence of God?
Who do you find yourself to be here, on this threshold?
Who are you NOT?
Can you use this place to more fully experience the present moment, the Wonder and Grace of now?
Walk Out: Saving Our Lives by Blessing the Threshold
Blessing the Threshold
This blessing
has been waiting for you
for a long time.
While you have been
making your way here
this blessing has been
gathering itself
making ready
biding its time
praying.
This blessing has been
polishing the door
oiling the hinges
sweeping the steps
lighting candles
in the windows.
This blessing has been
setting the table
as it hums a tune
from an old song
it knows,
something about
a spiraling road
and bread and grace.
All this time
it has kept an eye
on the horizon,
watching,
keeping vigil,
hardly aware of how
it was leaning itself
in your direction.
And now that
you are here
this blessing
can hardly believe
its good fortune
that you have finally arrived,
that it can drop everything
at last
to fling its arms wide
to you, crying
welcome
welcome
welcome.
Questions
Can you bless the threshold you find yourself within, unsure of how long it may last or where it is leading you?
What do you know about “a spiraling road and bread and grace” that might be helpful now?
Can you locate the part of your heart that has been preparing for this moment, that welcomes what is coming by faith rather than sight?
What are you holding that you might need to drop to properly welcome what is coming?
One Response
Beautiful, Janet. Thank you. Your exploration of thresholds is very meaningful to me at this point in my life.