And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
Last week we introduced the spiritual concept of Thresholds. Today it is time to think about transitions, something inevitable when you pass through a thresholds.
When I get home from work, my tendency is to rush around like I am looking for a lost set of keys. On the trip hope I will more likely than not thought out a plan of what I will do and then the minute I step foot out of the vehicle. I walk down to the box to see if there is mail to be picked up. I don't know why I bother, my wife will have picked up the mail when she was home for lunch at least 95 percent of the time and then takes it to work with her rather than bringing it back in the house before she goes back to work. Still, I check, hoping I will be surprised to find the mail is still in the box? Why? I have no idea. It is rare to get anything interesting delivered by post anyway.
After checking the mail, I will gather my bag and whatever else needs to come back in the house. In rapid succession I:
Check out the bird feeders
If the cat does not meet me at the door, I look around to make sure she has gotten locked in somewhere.
I take off my jacket and hang it up.
Going into the bedroom I change from day clothes to after work clothes and then lay out my clothes for the next day.
I refill the CPAP tank and take my evening medication regimen.
The list continues but I think I made the point. I have a routine and it is almost as if I am trying to shave seconds from the time needed as if I were in a race.
This kind of behavior is in direct contrast to one of the basic creeds of Benedictine life which is to move gracefully and with intention from one activity to the other so as to not miss the grace available in the moments of passage. Slow down, I have to sometimes shout at myself, there are no deadlines to be met, only intentions to fulfill.
What intentions? Let's pause for a minute to talk about them.
The Latin word Statio comes from the Rule of St. Benedict and it means to be stable or stationary.. There is work to be done, things that need to be accomplished but the they need to be completed through stable, not rushed or awkward movement. Have you ever watched how Monks file into the choir for prayer liturgies or how a priest moves around in the sanctuary? Slowly. Deliberately. Gracefully. Peacefully. Compare how confident a senior server seems when compared to an edgy nervous youngster in their first months. I have been working 43 years and yet I come home from work like I was shot out of a cannon. For that matter it might be how I come to work as well.
What has statio have to do with Thresholds? When it is time to cross through, it is better to be stable than hurried, deliberate rather hurried, confident rather than frightened.
Ok. There it is again. The fear thing. Thresholds terrify because they are really nothing more than gentle words to describe a change that may or not be gentle. Thresholds of a day tend to be pretty peaceful. Thresholds that led to a change in the direction and character life are not as simple.
I have come to recognize 4 major stages life which are marked with certainty. First is the transition from being at home to going to school. The second stage, school, lasts until the education phase of life is largely complete. The third stage is our vocational life which is really the defining time of our life because it will determine how the fourth and final stage of life will play. I have yet to come up with a good name for the fourth stage. The obvious answer is retirement but is more complex than that. It would be too morbid to think of as the waiting period for before death. With respect to myself, I hope it is an avocational stage when I will be able to do the things I have longed to do in greater measure such as reading, writing, service, teaching, traveling and so on.
As the time to pass through the threshold suddenly looms after a lifetime of anticipation, I find myself being both driven forward by a desire to be done with a career that has never been fulfilling but has been successful, at least in some ways of thinking about it and yet the sheer fear of the unknown of what awaits pushes me back against the relenting winds driving me forward.
I have of late developed the practice of integrating a way of creating a space of grace where I can consider a threshold before either stampeding through hell bent for an outcome or freezing up in fear until the share force of the weight of decision shoves me through.
Here is the list of steps, first in Irish.
Sos
Machnamh
Gui
Gniomhu
Now English
Pause
Reflect
Pray
Act
The hardest part of the process is to actually pause when the momentum of life is shoving you forward. It takes practice and the need to be kind to yourself when you fail to pause first but there is a distinct benefit to making the effort. I have been finding peace and calm when making decisions and my outlook for the future has brightened and is brightening.
When frazzled, spending time in the Wisdom books can be a comfort. Consider this.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
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