Crossing Thresholds

“Many times today I will cross over a threshold.
I hope I will catch a few of those times.
I need to remember that my life is, in fact,
a continuous series of thresholds:
from one moment to the next,
from one thought to the next,
from one action to the next.”

–Gunilla Norris, First Stanza of Crossing the Threshold

Gunilla Norris’ meditation reminds us that we cross so many thresholds every day, but we’re lucky if we’re fully present to any of them. And rituals are often forgotten even for the major thresholds of our lives.

“I have a thing for doors. I always think of them as a threshold to something new.” 
-Jada Pinkett Smith.

As my Jewish friends celebrate a new year this Rosh Hashanah, I’m inspired by this sacred holiday and actress Jada Pinkett Smith’s sense of doors as thresholds to pay attention to the many thresholds I cross daily. What thresholds can you honor with a sacred pause or moment of awareness this week?

May you open to the possibility of leaving behind what no longer serves you and welcoming in sweet blessings with each threshold you cross this week.

Crossing the Threshold

by Gunilla Norris

Many times today I will cross over a threshold.
I hope I will catch a few of those times.
I need to remember that my life is, in fact,
a continuous series of thresholds:
from one moment to the next,
from one thought to the next,
from one action to the next.

Help me appreciate how awesome this is.
How many are the chances to be really alive…
to be aware of the enormous dimension
we live within.

On the threshold the entire past
and the endless future
rush to meet one another.
They take hold of each other and laugh.
They are so happy to discover themselves
in the awareness of a human creature.
On the threshold the present breaks all boundaries.
It is convergence,
a fellowship with all time and space.
We find You there.
And we are found by You there.

Help me cross into the present moment–
into wonder, into Your grace:
that “now-place” where we all are,
unfolding as Your life moment by moment.

Let me live on the threshold.

–From Being Home, a Book of Meditations

Constantly Becoming

“The Book of Life and the Book of Death are open every day, and our name is written in one or the other of them at every moment, and then erased and written again the moment after that. We are constantly becoming, continuously redefining ourselves. This doesn’t just happen on Rosh Hashanah.” —Alan Lew, Source: RebekahLowin.com