Dearest Darling Friends,

What to do when a friend has lost a child and you can’t ease their grief?

What to do when your spouse loses his job and you can’t resolve it for him?

What to do when the playground near your home is replaced with a high rise and there is loss written on every child’s face?

What to do when loved ones are in conflict and not ready for a resolution?

A nagging, frustrating pain and even helplessness is felt in these situations. Yet, the outcome in each of them is outside your control.

Q. What to do in such situations?

Ans. Be the container in the ‘liminal space’.

Between day and night there is a transition space called dusk.

Between deep sleep and being wide awake there is a transition space where we are drowsy.

Between an accident and recovery, there is a transition space where there is healing.

Between a job loss and another job, there is a transition space where there is search and rejuvenation.

Between an opportunity lost and another opportunity, there is a transition space, where there is exploration.

Between grief and joy, there is a transition space, where there is faith.

This transition space between two stories of our life is the ‘Liminal space’. It is the stage between the caterpillar and the butterfly.

Grief, transition, loss, accident, trauma, job loss, betrayal, relocation, graduation, conflict – nearly every human experience has within it some element of liminal space.

In our liminal spaces we are raw, vulnerable, and exposed.  We need a container that holds us with gentleness and strength, without rushing the process or forcing a choice.

Be that container for your loved ones when they are in the ‘liminal space’. If you can do this, you are one remarkable human being.

P.S. When time comes, remember to be that container to yourself.

With love, prayers and best wishes,