Hi Friends --
There's a word I’ve long adored: liminal. It's not a common word, but it ought to be. It means "occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or a threshold." I've heard literary experts talk about how Shakespeare's works often occupy a liminal space -- where characters live in a reality in the story as it is, and then venture to a place where it could become.
My Foxy cave is a liminal space. It's the place full of joyful possibilities, but grounded in a terrible reality that I still can barely understand. My tent is often pitched on that boundary. When I'm grueling through lousy Foxy side effects, or even in the thick of it as the nurses hook me up, I find myself turning the word liminal over and over in my head.
But last week a new friend -- a Foxy alum and one who has summited the mountain -- wove liminal throughout a dinner conversation, and just like that, my little word went from mindful musings to conversational magic. Later, in a podcast I listened to, my new friend said this: "I wish there was cultural permission to be fragile and be in that liminal space where we're not totally sure it is going to work out, but we really need one another to step in with love."
That in between space -- where hope and fear commingle -- is maybe the most important place any of us ever travel through. It's often uncomfortable, but I'm convinced it's where the most powerful miracles occur. Because venturing close to someone where the story is messy, scary, and full of uncertainty is where truth is best revealed, and love is at its most profound.
It's also the most courageous space of all. There's a certain kind of bravery required to decide to enter into a fragile story. Courage is also a key dynamic for the one who receives the visitor, the one who wants to draw close, and who's at peace with the unresolved. Somewhere in all that liminal space our imaginations become more alive, and new stories can be told.
The week ahead will bring a welcome mini vacation from Foxy, and will include time in DC and Austin, where some of my most courageous friends will be close, and who will indulge me as I tell my new tales from the land of the liminal. Big hugs will go extra long, and I'll have a chance to share heartfelt thanks for those with all kind of love and courage to draw close, in the most truthful days of all.
Round 7 is slated for the week of the 30th!
xoxo
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