Mary’s Musings: Thresholds – Theme of the Month
As we begin the month of May, our state and communities are poised on the threshold of a partial re-opening. We don’t know yet the businesses that will restart. We don’t know when physical distancing will disappear. We know that schools will not meet again this spring. We don’t know what awaits us on the other side of this threshold.
(We do know that our Sunday services will continue on Zoom at least through the end of May and probably through the end of June.)
Our theme this month is thresholds. Every year, every month, every day presents us with new thresholds. And we usually don’t notice: We treat them as just another day, month, year. We assume sameness. This year, this month, this day is different.
20th century psychologist Rollo May observed that most creative breakthroughs arise when we are “between the worlds,” in liminal space, on a threshold. (Before pandemic, my best ideas came when I was driving – not at home, not at OUUC yet. Now I have to get up and walk in the hallway to hear those breakthrough ideas.)
The pandemic is a threshold: ’in between’ what used to be and what will come after. No one knows what ‘after’ will look like.
We know our world faces deep challenges which need our creativity and collaboration. In this threshold time, may we listen deeply to the wise voice within us, the voice of Life within each other, and prepare to share creative breakthroughs that arise within and all around us!
