We cross over them multiple times a day and move through significant thresholds many times throughout our lives.  We  graduate from educational programs, get married, divorced, change jobs, move……  We cross over major thresholds when we are born and die, give birth to a child and say goodbye to someone we love. Our lives are a series of thresholds to cross over, move through and beyond.  It’s how we move through and beyond them that creates our future of possibilities and growth.

This past December we rescued a dog that is very afraid of crossing over into other spaces. When we were meeting him he had to be carried through the gate to go into the yard where we all were waiting for him. Who knows what his life was like before we adopted Bodhi or why he is so fearful of walking through passageways.   At first I pulled him along thinking he will quickly learn he is safe and has nothing to fear. Then I realized, he needed to go through the door with someone to feel safe.  He wanted to walk through the threshold with me and still does eight months later.  It continues to be important to honor him that way to help him feel safe.

Our country had the opportunity to move from one side of this pandemic to healing and freedom.  Too many chose not to and so we continue to live with limitations and fear.  Though I have very little sway over the millions who stay on one side of the threshold I can choose to move from fear to what is to come for myself and those I care most about.  I can choose to be awake and aware enough to transform the difficulty we all experienced into who I want to become.  Like Bodhi, I have had companions walk with me through this process.   Just as Bodhi needs a guide to walk with him as he moves through a doorway, we all need others to help us move beyond where we have been.

It’s a choice to take the first step through the darkness into a life that is big enough to fully step into.   My prayer for you is to be willing to go beyond where you are now and to walk with those who can accompany you to what and who you are to become.