I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series. Read on for Janeen Adil’s reflection and poem about liminality.
Thresholds and doorways make for evocative images; as a monk in the world, I am drawn to a spiritual contemplation of this between space. When we lean into mystery/Mystery, we can see liminal time as a place open to rich and fruitful potential. Rather than stopping in an uneasy pause, we can instead rest on the threshold, regarding the time here (however long or short) as holy, as one of blessing.
For a Liminal Time
I see you bridging the gap of that
between space of choices:
What lies in weight behind,
what lies in wait ahead.
Are they really such opposites,
standing as you are on the threshold?
See if you can rest in this time and place,
embracing an and
to widen your gaze and broaden
your spirit.
Listen:
Tehom el Tehom: Deep calls to deep,
the old psalmist cries!
Listen. And then
you will come to know,
in that liminal time and space:
You are not in exile after all
but in a place of wonder,
one that is alight with possibility
and one that may yet
be aflame with desire.
Janeen R. Adil is a spiritual director, writer, and teacher; within the United Church of Christ, she is Commissioned Minister of Christian Spirituality. She lives in eastern PA, in a farmhouse built by English/Welsh Quakers over 200 years ago. Her direction profile can be found at Spiritual Directors International, sdicompanions.org.
