Sunday, July 26, 2015

The Space Between

Between ...

     leaving and arriving...

          being away and being home...

Between take-off and landing...

     good-bye and hello...

           the wave that knocks me down and the next foaming crest of water...

                 in my tradition, between burial and resurrection...



Sometimes we don't think of this space, or avoid noticing it.  I often cover it by reading, working on a crossword or Sudoku, or sleeping through it.

If I find it easy to ignore, either I am still wrapped up in thoughts of where I have been, or what will be next.

This is liminal time, where the ground falls away, . .  or rises to meet us... where life and death touch...

 
view of a darkening sky, from above clouds, a mist covers most of it, in foreground sunlight comes over a line of clouds, like a waterfall of light

About a week ago I plunged into a space between -- and at moments thought I would be endlessly stuck in it. I was going home from "Beyond Walls," an amazing week of learning, writing, reading, praying, listening, talking, pondering and more held at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.

Actually, I slid into the space, gradually saying good-bye. I rode to the airport in a Kenyon van with 3 other BeyondWallsians and our Kenyon driver, endured the amazingly long lines for checking in with one of my BW compatriots, discovered another near my gate... then she boarded her flight and and my time at Beyond Walls 2015 ended. I sat waiting for the overdue plane, between our Kenyon experience and my home (which ended up being a much longer time then planned -- of course).


I decided that if "Beyond Walls" had to end,

looking down at sky full of clouds, looks like snow piled on hills, sun light shines across clouds in a path from the distance toward viewer

                   I could at least enjoy the cloud views from the plane on the way home.

a row of clouds, with an orangish glow could be dream castles

Between.











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