During the first few months of my journey people kept asking, “So what is it exactly that you are doing?” I usually gave a detailed answer but it always felt like a rather abstract and insufficient one! That was until I met Greg during my internship at the Centre for Action and Contemplation, a man of great depth and wisdom (and the best humor!) His words were such revelation to me and the clarity I had been seeking since I left Australia. He said, “You’re going where the dots are not joined…” I’m sure he had no idea the impact his remark would have but it certainly sparked something in me…and this spark continued to build over the following days until it all unfolded, like a flood of insight!
Who hasn’t spent many happy times as a child doing dot to dot pictures?!!! And in our child-like way, we were eager to see the whole picture, but we knew there were no short cuts – we had to join the dots one at a time…and with each join the picture was revealed… piece by piece. In a sense, if I knew what the end result would look like, I wouldn’t have needed to set forth on this journey. I am beginning to understand that the picture comes out of the process and what I am called to do is trust the process. To simply join the dots as I respond to the daily invitation to walk in the way of love. Already I have a sense of ‘knowing’ when the dots are joined….on so many occasions I have felt deep connections with people and our stories resonated in such a way that it has left a mark. The concept seems to catch on well – when I share stories of some significant encounters along my journey, people now say “that was a dot!”
The next part of revelation stems from an art workshop I participated in during my Internship. Our wonderful teacher, Barbara, led us through exercises that taught us how to move into the right side of our brain, which is always helpful when we want to clear some space for our inner-voice and move aside the ‘left-brain’ incessant chatter and writing of lists!!! The exercises consisted of drawing patterns focusing on the ‘negative’, the spaces in between the outlines of the picture. It was through this experience that I began to reflect on the ‘liminal’ spaces present everywhere if we have the eyes to see… and the way we can live and be in the world when we are attentive to these spaces.
Out of this new understanding, I started seeing the gift of the ‘liminal’ spaces in my own journey. The spaces ‘in between’ the dots. This is where the real depth of living and exchange of wisdom takes place. Not at the destinations but along the untrodden paths. This is when we know we have NOT reached our destination and we learn to trust and to hold the tensions and the questions and the things we cannot see or do not understand and realize that we will not always have answers…that paradox is the essence of mystery… and just keep walking humbly and with intention.
For all of us struggling with the demands of our busy lives, this is the space that we are invited to create. Astronomers are telling us that this is happening right now out there in the universe. The empty spaces (between those twinkling stars) are currently expanding. What a gift to be a co-creator of this expanding of space! All of us can take part.In the ‘in-between’ space lies the threshold. Our creator is making way for something new!
Yet of course, in every new emergence we can recognize patterns and cycles of creation. If we look to the world’s First Peoples, we will notice that they have always known something of these ‘in-between’ spaces. It is certainly reflected in Australian Indigenous Art – what is amazing is that it is the spaces in-between which create the picture. My heart remains open to what Indigenous people all over the world teach us about how to be at one with each other and all of creation.
