The Sacred Work of the In-Between

by Kathleen McIntyre, LCSWA

The moment you wake, there is a threshold between the dream state and wakefulness. If you rise before the sun, you meet the threshold of night and day. Even each breath, when taken with intention, can become a doorway into the next moment, inviting us into the unfolding of now instead of living seconds ahead of ourselves.

We are always crossing thresholds. Most of the time, we do not notice.

In the United States right now, it feels as though we are standing at one. An old way of being in the world is unraveling. Something rooted in connection, respect, and shared belonging is struggling to emerge.

Thresholds are not easy places to stand.
They are often uncomfortable, uncertain, and disorienting. And they are also places of immense potential and beauty.

Thresholds hold uncertainty and alchemy. They are the fertile in-between.

In Celtic spirituality, the body itself is a threshold. A meeting place between heaven and earth. The clay of our bones and the life that moves through all things.

When we are embodied, fully inhabiting ourselves and aware of the moment we are seated in, we stand at the edge of the sacred. When I say sacred, I mean that which lives beyond ordinary awareness. The mystery that surrounds and sustains us. That which is worthy of reverence. Embodiment becomes the doorway to this expanded way of seeing and sensing.

This is why our work at the Heartwood School of Forest Therapy is rooted in presence. In learning to slow down. In remembering how to listen to the body and to the more-than-human world. When we bring our attention to these thresholds: between breath and breath, between inner and outer, between human and Earth…we begin to feel the intelligence that guides both healing and transformation.

Awareness of the thresholds we encounter brings richness to our lives. At these doorways, change can take root. We are invited to release what has been and step toward what is ready to awaken.

You might take a few moments to sit with these questions:

• At which threshold am I now standing?

• At this time in my life, what am I leaving?

• Where am I being invited to enter?

• What is preventing me from crossing?

• What gift or support might help me move forward?

Tending thresholds is tender work. Seeds are most vulnerable as they germinate. Roots reach downward in the dark before any green appears above the soil.

So much is happening that cannot yet be seen.

What care do you need to offer the seed within you?

At Heartwood, we believe this is sacred work. Learning to stay present in the in-between. Learning to trust the unseen. Learning to accompany others as they cross their own thresholds with courage, compassion, and deep listening.

Because it is here, in these liminal spaces, that both people and the Earth begin to heal.