Hi There!
"So, where the heck is my underwear, and how about the Q-Tips?
Don't tell me they are boxed, sealed, stacked and ready to go!!"
It's like that right now.
I'm moving out of state in just four days.
It's rough not to know where things are,
and most of all where I am just now.
It's dislocation awaiting relocation.
It's like standing in a doorway.
You are no longer where you were,
and you're not yet where you're going to be.
This business of "Betwixt and Between,"
this Doorway space can be about self-sense,
it can be relational, social, professional,
familial, financial, marital, psychic, a health issue.
Whatever the manifestation,
we often find ourselves in a "no longer, not yet" mode:
- no longer having kids at home,
not yet adjusted to just the two of us
- no longer climbing the corporate ladder,
not yet ready to step down
- no longer a child,
not yet an adult
- no longer hooking up,
not yet into a real relationship
- no longer playing tennis,
not yet ready for a walker
- no longer married,
not yet close to a significant other
- no longer trim,
not yet a bit comfortable with middle age,
middle body spread
- no longer my old self,
not yet whatever the heck
my new self will be.
We regularly find ourselves spiritually in Doorway space:
- no longer praying the way we did for years,
not yet at home in a different experience of prayer
- no longer cock sure about who/how God is,
not yet comfortable with a less defined
and more spacious awareness of,
an "at-ease-ness" with The All.
- no longer obsessing to find God,
not yet relaxing as "found"-ed in God
- no longer sold on institutional religion,
not yet "at home" in a foundational,
freer form of religious community
- no longer reading "devotional literature,"
yet not acquainted with a broader spiritual genre
- no longer clear and convinced on moral issues,
not yet ready for a new field of integrity
- no longer trying to please ( control ) God,
not yet ready to go to bed with God.
About now most of us get pretty itchy for an
All American, Get-a Grip, Pro-Active, What to Do About It, Game Plan.
Well, the saints and mystics all pretty much tell us the same thing about being in a
DOORWAY.
Don't just accepted it,
Embrace it,
Better yet,
Let it Embrace you
and
Envelope you.
See that when you are neither here nor there,
in fact
YOU ARE.
Being in a Doorway space puts in bold relief that we are not the sum of our
understandings, activities, efforts, achievements, consciousness.
We start, continue and always will
BE.
WE ARE
A two day old baby and a fifty year old mystic both
ARE.
They are held in
BEING
by
EVER AND ENDLESS
LOVE.
No matter what the surface of their lives are like, they
ARE.
So, when you are in a
DOORWAY ,
RELAX.
YOU ARE HOME SAFE
If you allow yourself to
ACCEPT AND THRILL TO
BEING
however it presents on the surface of life,
however in between things are on that surface.
We evolve in our awareness of ourselves, and all else.
It's a flow unto Fullness.
The fundamental self is just that - an eternal constant, a mystery within
THE MYSTERY.
Its conditions, its manifestations, its way of being conscious of itself,
and how all that is put into practice, is lived out,
are regularly in flux.
There is an essential difference between
WHO
WE ARE
and
HOW WE ARE.
The blessing here is to go deep and celebrate that
" I AM "
and that within
" I AM WHO AM"
( Exodus 3:14 )
A humble example of all this.
A precious diamond is that when in the earth,
when mined,
polished and set,
extracted,
and placed in a new setting.
It always is what it is.
Its manifestation and location
are set for a while,
and yet there is the inbetweeness
that eventuates in a new setting
for the constant diamond.
We people experience our Self Sense
on two levels at the same time;
- foundational, constant
- surface, evolving, often in Doorway space.
On the surface of things,
we go from set and settled
to a Doorway,
to set and settled
until the next transition
through another Doorway.
It is a living through of
The Paschal Mystery.
We die to how it was.
We rise to a new how it is.
The in between time,
is like Jesus in the tomb,
and Jonah in the belly of the whale.
Well, I'll eventually find my underwear and the Q-Tips,
but it will be in a new place,
a new setting.
What stays,
and is staying,
is that
"I am,"
in this
Doorway space
between here and there.
All the best as you "are"
and are evolving in your understanding of that
and your living out that understanding
in changing times, places and ways.
Please pray for me
and those who have to put up with me
when I stress out about underwear and Q-Tips
in my current
Doorway space.
See you next week,
not in the same way,
but the same you and the same me.
Love to all!
John Frank
