Life in the Liminal Spaces

How do you navigate the ‘in-between’ spaces of life?

Liminal spaces. No man’s land. The great in-between. The land of crickets and tumbleweeds.

In movies, liminal spaces are scenes of transition. Think: long, creepy hallways or empty metro stations at night- spots through which an anxious and queasy protagonist passes though on the way to their destination.

So, what about these liminal spaces,-the waiting rooms of real life? We find ourselves fidgety, wedged between old dreams and new passions, old assumptions and new understandings. How do we navigate the purgatory between who we have been and who we are becoming?

I have been wondering: how do we embrace this tension? How do we wait well and live into life’s murky, transitional spaces?

Somewhere between years initially marked by semesters and later by children’s birthdays, I felt lost. For the first time in my life, I was caught between old ways of moving through the world, and emerging but hazy dreams of what came next. It was disorienting. It was liminal.

I didn’t want to get stuck in the long hallway of life. Literally or metaphorically, nothing good ever comes from that. So, I just did the next thing: I made my bed. I packed lunches and went to work. I ate a few cookies and read. I drank Pellegrino out of a wine glass and finally stopped thinking so much.

Then, I decided against making any life-altering decisions. Instead, I sat quietly and prayed. I was reminded that the transitional spaces of life are just that: transitional. Temporary. They come to pass—not to stay.

So, life remains simple and quiet over here. In the absence of any big proclamations or answers, I am living somewhere between the ‘now’ and ‘not yet.’ Life in the liminal is lived one day at a time.

These liminal spaces are connecting points—doorways to the coming season. As we wait and learn to live well in the in-between, may we be found faithful to the present, and remember to cut ourselves some slack.

How do you handle the liminal spaces in your own life? How are you navigating the ‘in-between’ right now?