The Comfort of Liminal Spaces
Smaller Doses of Life, Leadership and Anchor Points by Jerry Rosenthal
Smaller Dose #11: It's good that you came back for more.
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Length: ~700 words
So here we go…..
What is a Liminal Space?
A Liminal Space is the time between the “what was” and the “next.” It is a place of transition, waiting, and not knowing. A Liminal Space is where all transformation takes place, if we learn to wait, to be in the moment, and to take it in with all of our senses and accept the uncertainty of what may come.
· It is the time between graduating from school, moving to a new city, starting a new job, making new friends, and creating new life experiences and memories.
A Liminal Space can also be a physical location.
· It is the lobby, concourse and the gates at an airport, the time and place between home and a destination, which could be either familiar or new.
A Liminal Space can be metaphysical in nature.
· It is realizing that something that you long held to be true isn’t really so and you start a transition to seek a new reality, something which better suits your values and beliefs.
These types of uncertainty are uncomfortable for most people, including me. I’ve found a way to experience this space differently.
In June of this year, I had to take an unexpected road trip on very short notice. I woke up early, packed, and headed north from Philadelphia, towards the Lehigh Valley, The Pocono Mountains, through the Southern Tier of New York and on towards Syracuse before heading west towards Buffalo. I didn’t have time to prepare a new playlist or select podcasts to listen to, so I found myself focused on the road, the low growl of the engine and the amazing landscape. It was a beautiful day with a blue sky filled with clouds and very few cars on the road. It was only me and my thoughts to occupy my time.
Over the years, I’ve done this drive dozens of times through all four distinct seasons. Yet this time, I found the greenery, the mountains, the landscape, and the sky more beautiful than I had ever noticed. It was almost as if it were a movie moment and not reality. And then I realized that I was in a Liminal Space. I was in a place in time between two points both physically and metaphysically.
And for the remainder of the drive on that warm June day, I found myself in a state of being more aware of my surroundings than I had been in a long time, many years perhaps. A sense of peace and calm had settled over me. This quiet drive had become easier than it had ever been.
So much of our lives are spent thinking about things from our past and worrying about things that may occur in the future. Most of those things never occur. And for the next few hours, I found myself doing none of that. I was completely present. I had no worries, no concerns, and complete acceptance of the moment.
I was in the comfort of a Liminal Space.
That sensation stayed with me for the duration of my trip. And now, exactly four months later, I can still feel what I felt that day. An Anchor Point in my life story had been created. A lesson powerful enough to stick with me every single day since then.
Some might say that we are all living in a Liminal Space right now and that we have been since March of 2020. We all have our version of the “what was” and we are still trying to figure out the “next.” Each of us is in a different place along that transition.
A new normal is what some say. I’m not sure about that. I’m not sure I ever knew what normal was as an individual or for a society. I’m still in search of my normal, my “next.” And I think that I will be for quite some time.
The lesson here: Seek to find the comfort in your Liminal Spaces. Each of us can find something there if we take the time to look.
Jerry is the author of “Small Doses: Common Sense to Common Practice,” a book which contains 18 thought pieces about the intersection of Process Improvement, Leadership and Life. Jerry has started experimenting with short stories about life experiences (Anchor Points) and the profound lessons that can be learned from before and after those moments.
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