THE SACRED & Mystical PAUSE OF THRESHOLDS
Doorways. They amaze me. Especially the ones decorated. A simple string of flowers across the threshold, a beautiful carved symbol expressing the sentiment of something sacred…doorways are the announcement that we are arriving somewhere new. Just like when we arrive at someone’s home, we pause at the doorway, wait and when the door opens there might be gestures, a smile. We might remove our shoes and step in after being invited.
An invitation, offering and a suspended moment.
When traveling I am always mesmerized by the doorways. I stop often, look and see what each on my path of the day, has to share with me. I imagine all sorts of scenarios behind the beautiful door, worn and dilapidated, sometimes askew to the frame. I imagine their history and who built it. Why was it chosen and how come some of them are so lavishly cared for with flowers, signs, well wishes or blessings. They hold secrets behind them and that feels mysterious, so much unknown.
Doorways are also thresholds. In Sanskrit, the language of Yoga & Ayurveda, the term for this is sandhi. Sandhi is the sacred pause between. Between seasons, between day and night, between bones in the body (joints), between the exhale and the inhale..between many things. It is a place of great change, of unknown and often something that is hard to put a finger on. They are the places of the liminal, the unstructured and can be tender and vulnerable. But certainly places to pay attention to. As I write this we are experiencing the threshold of a calendar year and as the clock strikes midnight, people all around the globe celebrate and honor it.
It is no small thing this pause, this threshold, this transition.
Menopause (postpartum is too!) is also this type of thing. This pause, this sacred shift and this monumental threshold. A time to listen deeply, to honor what is true, to celebrate what has been and to correct what needs adjusting. It is the place where power and shakti grow and the mystical of the unknown resides. It can be supported by science and honored by your experience as it continues to bloom into wisdom. All of it happening in your very own mind, body & spirit. To say it is magical might be blowing it off in some people’s mind but I mean it in the most sincere way. Sometimes magic is truth and science too, I think…
Consider the ways in which your life has thresholds of sacred. Places to honor and be present to the magic and the mystery, the science and the sci-fi. We really need it all to access the deeper understandings and meanings, I believe. I think it helps us access ourselves more fully, more holistically and more completely.