At the Cruz de Ferro on El Camino in 2015

“What’s next?”

That’s the question friends are now asking us, given that we recently completed the trilogy of books we felt called to research, write, and publish nearly eight years ago (Nothing Bad Between Us, CALLED, and the latest, A Journey Home.

The truth: We don’t know what’s next. We are in what some would call a liminal space, betwixt and between, in transition, having left one stage of life but not yet entered the next. In liminal space, we feel like we’re not in control (not that we ever are!). It can be scary. It’s no surprise that we all generally try to avoid it.

So yes, at times Ed and I lie awake at night, our planning minds twisting and turning, scurrying around trying to fill the vacant space – quickly and completely – in order to regain so-called control of our lives.

And then we remember: We’ve been in these moments of disorientation, uncertainty, and transition before, the last significant time eight years ago on El Camino, just before retiring from our business careers of over thirty years. We know these moments hold the potential of being times of significant positive change. The very vulnerability and openness of liminal space clears the way for something genuinely new and extraordinary to take place. The Latin word limen means “threshold,” the means or place of entry, the point where we begin to think and act in new ways.

But in order for this to happen, we must see liminal space as an opportunity rather than a difficult time to avoid or escape. We must be willing to sit with the uncertainty, with the questions, with the scary nothingness that seems to lie ahead.

It helps to lean into the late John O’Donohue’s wise words:

“Perhaps the work we do has lost its soul
Or the love where we once belonged
Calls nothing alive in us anymore.
We drift through this gray, increasing nowhere
Until we stand before a threshold we know
We have to cross to come alive once more.

May we have the courage to take the step
Into the unknown that beckons us;
Trust that a richer life awaits us there,
That we will lose nothing
But what has already died;
Feel the deeper knowing in us sure
Of all that is about to be born beyond
The pale frames where we stayed confined,
Not realizing how such vacant endurance
Was bleaching our soul’s desire.”

May we remain in this liminal space long enough to feel that “deeper knowing.”
And if you find yourself in a similar space, please remember:

We are together on this journey!