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Thursday, October 16, 2014

LIVING FORWARD, LEARNING BACKWARDS



Morgan Shamy wrote an interesting post on her evolving life
and the questions she is now asking herself:
http://www.morganshamy.com/2014/10/plastic-spider-rings-and-winds-of-change.html


It got me to thinking.

In life we experience crossroads moments.  

More often than not we do not realize we are at the hub of a crossroads ...

with far-reaching consequences for our future.  We simply are living another day.  

It is only from the perspective of years down the line that we realize our choices were pivotal ones.

There are no trumpets to herald those times.  No graduation diploma issued.  No pat on the back ...

Well, maybe one delivered much lower -- with force!

Those are "Liminality" Moments.  What the heck is Liminality?
 
“Liminality” is the word for the threshold moment—from the Latin root limin, meaning the center-line of the doorway

Liminality is the moment of crossing over. 

It describes the transitional phase of personal change, 

wherein one is neither in an old state of being nor a new, and not quite aware of the implications of the event. 

All the stages of life include liminality. 

And they sneak up on you like Apaches with the same intent usually.


Life is nothing but moments of crossing over. 


Stitching these moments together into the quilt of wisdom is the task of the time following your surviving them.  

Have you noticed that as soon as you begin to get the hang of things, 

Life gives you the bum's rush into a new stage of living 

where you have to learn all new rules with the old ones no longer valid?

 We never get to feel competent in life for very long before the answers get changed on us.

It is only in reconsideration that we invest the past with meaning.  

While living it, we usually are too busy keeping our noses above water.


The most powerful rites of passage are reflective:


When you look back on your life again and again, 

paying attention to the rivers you have crossed 

and the gates you have opened
and walked on through, 

the thresholds you have passed over.

I endorse such reflection ...

Please consider it ... 

Try to see who you were or
else you will never fully understand who you are 
and who you yet may become. 

The mirror has more to show you than just its surface.


4 comments:

  1. Very true, Roland, those smile lines and frown lines show good times and worrysome times. If we are survivors we grow from experiences, even those not of our choosing.

    The more we live, the more we know about life, if we take the time to reflect, as you say, and realize what is important.

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  2. D.G.:
    Some people live and learn & some people just live, right? :-)

    Our faces are maps of the lives we've lived and the choices we've made!

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  3. I love this perspective. The idea of a threshold moment, of crossing over to the next and the next stage--very true. This is how life works.

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  4. Roland, I think you're brilliant. Truly. I'm always fascinated with how you view life and what you have to say… and thank you for the highlight… (I've been out of town in and out of reception, so hopefully this message and my ones on twitter saying thanks come through!) You are wonderful!!!!

    :)

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