Living in Liminality

Our worldview is shaped in part by our language, which is shaped by the worldview of its speakers. We are trained from early on to see things in the positive, the foreground, and the defined. But then, the world is not as clear-cut in practice as it is in our language. There is this time of liminality permeating our lives, filling in the cracks between the moments we strive for.

We are so focused away from these moments between things, that the word we have to describe it is not commonly used.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
lim•i•nal•i•ty
noun Anthropology.
the transitional period or phase of a rite of passage, during which the participant lacks social status or rank, remains anonymous, shows obedience and humility, and follows prescribed forms of conduct, dress, etc.
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[Origin: < L līmin- (s. of līmen) threshold + -AL1 + -ITY ]

Wikipedia uses the example of graduation to describe liminality. “A period during which one is ‘betwixt and between’, ‘neither here nor there’. When the ceremony is in progress, the participants are no longer students but neither are they yet graduates. This is the distinctive character of liminality."

Children live in a perpetual state of liminality. Constantly changing, they barely finish one stage when they transition into the next. We all have witnessed how quickly those awkward toddler steps blend into the junior high years and suddenly it feels as if that small child is in that liminal moment of graduation. As joyful as it is, this process is deeply disturbing to us. It goes against our need to be somewhere.

Most children I know are most uncomfortable between 4-6pm...the time between day and night. Even as infants they fuss as the sun begins to set. Whether they are responding to the discomfort of the adults in the house, or are already forming a worldview that is uncomfortable with liminality (or both), I don't know. In any case, I have many times wished for the time to pass more quickly.

We are taught in art classes to not only look to the foreground, but to purposefully look for the negative space. By training our eye to see the space around something, we actually see the object better. I find it humorous that we call it “negative” space. It shows how deep down it disturbs us. Once we train our eyes to see it, we begin to see the space around everything. In the same way, once we begin to think about liminality, we begin to see it as a constant presence in our lives.

A good family friend always had a framed picture of spots on her wall. She insisted that it was a picture of Jesus, but no matter how much I tried, all I saw was spots. Then, suddenly one day, there He was! Like the picture of spots that suddenly changes into the face of Christ, we can never see the picture of our world the same again.

Liminality is everywhere. Once we are trained to see it, we see it in every moment of our lives. Watching the second hand on a clock, there is a moment when we almost hold our breath, waiting for the hand to tick once again. It is in that moment that we experience liminality. If we're not careful, we might miss it. Focusing on the moment the hand ticks gives us a sense of accomplishment. In a flash, that moment in between vanishes, and we live our lives missing the beauty of the liminal...rushing from one tick in life to the next.

Growth and change are processes, and bring us through countless liminal moments. Work is full of liminality. And it makes us uncomfortable. We crave those moments of being in the middle of something defined. We complain about all the "wasted time" in our lives. Grocery store lines, the time between jobs, that moment when the call is being connected, even the moment when the cookies aren’t quite done or the laundry not quite dry are all moments between defined categories.

The power of learning to live with liminality is that it brings a deeper sense of process to what we do. Our minds are more comfortable with something that has a name, and we can label the in between as liminal. We begin to see it not as the enemy to progress, but as a necessary ingredient to what we’re trying to accomplish. Just as a painting is more beautiful when the negative space is well-thought; living times of liminality well helps us begin to see a depth and beauty in our lives we might not have before. God works in the whole picture of our lives, not just the foreground. What a gift to find that we can allow God to work in the liminal parts of our lives too.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/liminality