{"id":10095,"date":"2015-03-15T14:28:58","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T18:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/?p=10095"},"modified":"2015-03-15T14:28:58","modified_gmt":"2015-03-15T18:28:58","slug":"lifes-windows-and-thresholds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2015\/03\/lifes-windows-and-thresholds.html","title":{"rendered":"life’s windows and thresholds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This past year — heck, this past couple of months! — has been full of transitions. Passages, they once were called. But there are few markers for so many of life’s changes. Aging, for instance, doesn’t have a ceremony, a certain day when the world recognises you as an ‘elder.’<\/p>\n

Nor do the slung arrows of daily life, despite the scars they leave — \u00a0often visible, often painful — serve as mile markers. Just one more broken bone, drop in activity, pound on the scale.<\/p>\n

Some people mark birthdays. I never have. My old ladies worked until their late 70s, full-time jobs of hard physical labour. Cleaning ladies in banks, they were: the women who come invisibly after work and mop, scrub, dust & wax. All my\u00a0old ladies — not just Grandma & Aunt Bonnie — gardened actively, so that 70 (even 80!) wasn’t so much a marker as a journey, one begun many years earlier.<\/p>\n

There are windows we look through into our past lives, and doorways through which we walk. There are threshold spaces between\u00a0then\u00a0<\/em>&\u00a0now, now\u00a0<\/em>&\u00a0still to come<\/em>. Sometimes we linger. Sometimes we stumble quickly from one state of being into the next.<\/p>\n

Yesterday my exquisite grandniece was christened. It was a gift of love from my niece & nephew to his mother, who is a devout Catholic. While my sister (my niece’s mother) also is a strong<\/p>\n

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Christian, many of our family aren’t Christian at all: we have a smattering of Buddhists, a couple of Wiccans, a few agnostics, and several atheists. So a christening is something I haven’t attended since I too gave the gift of my firstborn’s christening to my parent, this time my father.<\/p>\n

Dressed in her antique family christening gown, little Julianna snuggled into the various arms of aunt, grandmothers, mother & father, godparents. She managed the whole lengthy sprinkle & intone ceremony with grace & aplomb. All the while serving as a tangible reminder of how important it is to remember the r\u00f4le of these ceremonial rituals.<\/p>\n

As the priest spoke of the responsibilities of parents, godparents, & family, I was struck again by how we rose to the solemnity of the occasion. Despite my tendency to fidget (my beloved\u00a0did\u00a0<\/em>have to kick me once), I watched in awe as the priest waited for my niece to feed the hungry newborn before the actual rites. My nephew — a very funny guy — wore the new mantle of fatherhood even more\u00a0\u00a0proudly than\u00a0he does his police uniform. And both grandmothers were misty-eyed.<\/p>\n

Not simply because Julianna is a breathtakingly lovely baby, but because here we sat, all together, gathered to participate in the dedication of this new life to something larger than all of us: faith. We gathered first in the church, then afterwards at a restaurant, joined to mark the birth of this new person, and her family’s promises.<\/p>\n

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All of this is by way of saying — clumsily & inarticulately — how much I see us losing as we move into an increasingly flat journey through our days. Far too few\u00a0beautiful rituals,\u00a0far too little pomp & circumstance to\u00a0honour these doorways into new beginnings. And I miss them. I think we all do.<\/p>\n

Here’s my newly minted resolution: I will find ways to frame the beauty\u00a0of my life. Like handmade rock\u00a0\u00a0doorways, or stained glass windows, or carved stone lintels, I will mark my passages and the passages of those I love. This is the gift tiny Julianna has given me. Thank you, little one. I needed the reminder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past year — heck, this past couple of months! — has been full of transitions. Passages, they once were called. But there are few markers for so many of life’s changes. Aging, for instance, doesn’t have a ceremony, a certain day when the world recognises you as an ‘elder.’ Nor do the slung arrows…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165,353,576,968],"tags":[1227,11,1181,1187,262,1308,969],"class_list":["post-10095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aging","category-change","category-everyday-living","category-passage","tag-aging","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-everyday-living","tag-passages"],"yoast_head":"\nlife's windows and thresholds - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This past year -- heck, this past couple of months! -- has been full of transitions. Passages, they once were called. 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