Liminal Space

Between sunset and complete darkness, the half moon hiding behind clouds, Jupiter and Saturn were the first to pop out of the darkening sky. Planets always are. I sat on the beach and witnessed their paths cross so close they looked like one big, bright object in the evening sky. 

I swear this happened back in July, I told my friend. You probably did see it, she said. You probably time jumped. There you have it folks. I have come unstuck in time. 

Upon my return to the island, I kept having visions of this café--open air, precariously perched on a steep cliffside hill, overlooking the ocean. It popped into my mind on my flight back, and I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. How strange. It's not even a place I go often. Not even back a week, and within two days, I met up with three different friends at said café. Like a vortex, they each chose the place, pulling me back again and again and again. 

And then nothing.

Fires burnout too easily here, I told another friend. Nothing sticks. Never have I lived so long in one place and witnessed so many communities rise and fall, catch flame and burn out. And I have lived in some pretty transient places in my life. Too much air, she said. 

And so I recede, and I continue down my path.

One of my cards for 2021 is Temperance. Balance. Alchemy. Being grounded here in the present, yet still allowing myself to live in the liminal space--where I'm unstuck in time, where vortexes form, and where the stories I write live. I'm on a mission to create, and I cannot lose sight of that. The unseen forces guiding my life will not let me lose sight of that. I am always presented with who and what I need in every given moment. To accomplish what I've set out to do, I need to keep myself in both worlds. 

I can't ground myself in air. Friends and communities will come and go as they always have. But I can walk bare foot in the sand, swim in the ocean, and ground stories to this plane. I can remind myself that life is a beautiful unfolding. I call friends and remind them too. I send them pictures of planets and tell them to watch for meteor showers. 

Colors of sunset fill the sky. Jupiter and Saturn drift apart. The full moon rises. The year ends. 

Mid-December. Sprawled on the dark, desolate beach at 2am, no moon, no light pollution. Just me and the beams of light shooting across the sky. Time has taught me that the most magical moments are never the ones I chase, but given as unexpected gifts.  

Many unexpected gifts came out of this year. And I welcome more of them as we shift into 2021. 

This year was also full of unexpected chaos for many people. Perhaps that's an understatement. But hidden in the unexpected, buried in the chaos of life, is where many gifts and blessings are found. What unexpected gifts or blessings did this year bring you?