Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up. At this threshold a great complexity of emotion comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement, sadness, hope. This is one of the reasons such vital crossings were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds: to take your time; to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward. The time has come to cross.
. . .
That we are here is a huge affirmation; somehow Life needed us and wanted us to be. To sense and trust this primeval acceptance can open a vast spring of trust within the heart. It can free us into a natural courage that casts out fear and opens up our lives to become voyages of discovery, creativity, and compassion. No threshold need be a threat, but rather an invitation and a promise. Whatever comes, the great sacrament of Life will remain faithful to us, blessing us always with visible signs of invisible grace. We merely need to trust.
~John O’Donohue
Picture found here.
Thank you for reminding me of that. Fr. John always struck me as having been a liminal sort of person, standing on the threshold between worlds. His own time to cross came not long after that book was published. His death apparently unexpected, but I would not be surprised if, at some level, he knew.