Wit & Wisdom by Adam Harbinson

There’s something about thresholds or new beginnings that frightens or excites us; we want it and yet we don’t.
Adam Harbinson.Adam Harbinson.
Adam Harbinson.

We prefer the safe predictable sameness of our dreary lives to the end of the old, which usually heralds a fresh start. Religious people keep God in a box, don’t let him out; he might wreck our plans by threatening our status quo.

I often think of the prophecy by Isaiah who, 2,700 years ago, saw that his people were happy to live in a rut.

He saw that a rut is a euphemism for a shallow grave.

He wrote: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing... Do you not see it?.”

And, that’s the problem; we are too often so obsessed with preserving our ‘cultural heritage’ that we are blinded to the possibility of a bright new future.

However, my main concern today for my friends, my family and my readers is the place that the current pandemic has forced us all into.

It’s a time that Richard Rohr refers to as a liminal time.

The word liminal means threshold, a place of ‘betwixt and between’, a sort of no-man’s land, a place in which it is difficult to be at peace.

I mean, who could be at peace in a world of such tight control...

We have no access to church or cinema, neither theatre nor restaurants, not even a coffee bar, schools or leisure centres.

But in this place of constriction we have two options; we can spend our days moaning, ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!’ while knowing the futility of such a cry, or we can pause, take a deep breath, relax, enjoy the new, slower pace of life.

We can look up to the sky where there are fewer airplanes.

The stars are brighter because there is so little air pollution and the fields and the trees seem greener.

Even the birdsong is more shrill and beautiful.

In short, a liminal time is a time of waiting.

It is a time of learning and listening.

It is a time from which we can all emerge more patient, more tranquil.

It is a time of quiet reflection.

As my old mum used to say, suffering makes us either bitter or better.

The choice is ours.

And, that’s a freedom no one can take from us. ([email protected])

www.adamharbinsonbooks.com

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