liminal space

Dragonfly Shares an Important Message About Transitional Times

Posted by Barbara Techel

There is a still spot in the center of transformation, a space in which we are betwixt and between — not really what we were, but not yet what we will become. Neither here nor there, this nor that, we touch the infinite expansiveness of creative potential. ~Dawn Brunke

In my last blog post I shared about how I’m feeling in the autumn of my life and how a friend lovingly said (about my almost fifty-nine years of age), “You’re only in August.” I’m still chuckling every time I think about her saying that.

After writing that post I read the above quote in a newsletter written by my friend Dawn. It struck me and confirmed for me yet again how yes, I may not quite be in the autumn of my life, though I feel myself gravitating toward it as it feels like a welcome space in which I want to inhabit.

This morning I was thinking of my same friend who said I’m only in August, and who is now two weeks from retiring. It’s been a trying last few years for her with her work. At times it has been painful to witness what she has gone through. But there is no doubt it is time for her to move into a new phase of her journey.

So thinking about her today as the countdown to her final days at her job is here, I decided to pull an oracle card for her as a way to show her some support as she begins to wind down and open herself to a new way of being.

The card I pulled is Time for a Nap from The Wisdom of the Oracle.

It couldn’t be more fitting. 

I took the card outside and posed it in a pot of pansies (one of my friend’s favorite flowers) and took a photo of it. I then texted it to my friend with a supportive message.

After I’d taken the picture, I noticed a dragonfly sitting on a post of our deck and positioned between two of the rail spindles.

It seemed so very still. I walked around the deck so the sun would be against my back so I could try and get a photo of it, yet, it still hadn’t moved.

I took the picture but felt concerned that perhaps it had died right where it was. However, I wasn’t sure and didn’t want to disturb it.

Curious about the stillness of the dragonfly I did a search on the internet. I discovered that dragonflies will rest after digesting a meal or it also said that they will gather energy from the warmth of the sun in order to fly off again.

It was then I realized that Dragonfly was confirming the card I’d just pulled for my friend who will soon retire. Soon she will have time to rest, reflect, regenerate and welcome a new way of being. This will no doubt will create a shift in her energy as she has felt depleted in many ways from her job.

She is excited about potential creative outlets she wishes to give thought to and pursue and will soon be able to dedicate more energy to that. But after working all her life, supporting herself as a single woman, it will take time to digest this new way of being before moving forward.

Rest will be important and thus my friend is now in this space Dawn so beautifully captured in these words:

There is a still spot in the center of transformation, a space in which we are betwixt and between — not really what we were, but not yet what we will become. Neither here nor there, this nor that, we touch the infinite expansiveness of creative potential.

This space of ‘betwixt and between’ can at times feel uncomfortable when we’ve been so used to going, going, going, or living our lives in a certain way we’ve grown comfortable with (though often when truthfully examined we realize it was a numb comfortable). The Time for a Nap card is the needed reminder that in order to truly know what is next for our journey, rest is vital to allow the next step to naturally and organically flow into our life.

While this plays out for my friend, and I feel it in many ways for myself too, I believe there are so many of us in this same liminal space. So I believe Dragonfly wanted me to share this with you so that we can all appreciate this in-between time that eventually reveals new growth and a deepening of understanding of all the phases of life.

Thank you, dear Dragonfly, for sharing your wisdom with us.

XO

Barb

                  

Embracing the Gifts of In-Between

Posted by Barbara Techel

Embracing the Gifts of In-Between

Nestled snug in my writing cottage, with my dachshund, Gidget snug in her pocket blanket (it opens at one end so she can climb right in), the cloudy and dreary skies from the morning have opened to an ocean of blue for as far as my eye can see out the half-moon window that faces west.

Before the sun had even risen, I’d meditated and pulled my oracle cards for the day – Flamingo Spirit from Spirit Animal Oracle deck, Exchanging Gifts from Wisdom of the Oracle, and Rest from Bright Souls deck.

I pondered what message this had for me for the day. In the beginning stages of a not-really-planned kitchen remodel with the drywall stage that began today, I knew right away what this reading was inviting me to do.

In all honesty I was resistant to the remodeling project. I’m someone who likes everything in its place as it helps calm my energy and soothes my nerves if I’ve had a challenging day. My home or as my dear friend refers to it as, my nest, truly is my sanctuary. My zodiac sign being cancer, I fit that to a tee as I’m all about the beauty and comfort of home.

Part of me worried about the financial part of the remodel also. Should we really be spending the money? The “what-if’s” swirled in my mind. But mostly, I didn’t know if I was up for the temporary disarray it would cause. This soon began to diminish as I picked out new counter tops, a new kitchen sink and faucet, and a new range that would replace the microwave I’ve been wanting to get rid of for a long time now.

But before I can get to the fun part of having this all installed and my kitchen back in order, this reading is inviting me to embrace the in-between. Just like anything in life, there are gifts during anything transitional if we open our perspective to invite it in.

BEFORE
Half-wall comes out
Two cabinets come out while inspector Gidget supervises
Drywall in progress

I see Flamingo Spirit as encouraging me to find peace during this time of transition from old to new.  Exchanging Gifts is that by being present with things as they are, even when things are not as I’d like them to be, there was a gift last night in seeing my kitchen empty awaiting its new look. The wide open space was inviting in many ways as my imagination plays with how it will all take shape over the coming weeks. The Bright Souls card, Rest asks me to simply be with each stage of the remodel and take each as a gift for what it is.

And so it is with the changing of season’s and of life, too. This reading fitting for the season of winter here in Wisconsin, as we move through January. The holiday season behind us and all the energy that brought, to a much quieter time now. Both season’s a gift in their own ways.

I think about how the winter months are my favorite to write as I continue to work on my newest book, I’m Fine Just the Way I Am. Which had a season of its own today as I came to the point in my writing process where it was time to print the manuscript out so that I can see the typed pages before me and begin shaping it from this vantage point. This will lead to the next step, and yet another, and another until I hold it complete in my hands at some point.

Part of writing for me also that I’ve gotten better at embracing are the in-between places such as when I’m not actively sitting at my computer and writing, but allowing what needs to simmer and move through me before it can come to the page.

January, I see as such a prime example of in-between as I keep my focus on my current writing project, while capturing ideas for future projects that are coming through me right now, with only the intention of writing them down. So too must they go through their own simmering and pondering stages – that liminal space of dreaming and wondering what it could eventually be.

Flamingo Spirit rests her sweet pink head within her soft wing, just as the roots of perennials and trees lie dormant, but with much life in them, in the cold of the earth, blanketed by the snow. All these in-between’s of the world, that lead to growth just as it is meant to unfold.

And just as I finish writing this, the clouds have rolled back in, and so this space of in-between is here sooner than I anticipated, but I know the sun will come again.

XO,

Barb