A threshold is not a simple boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms and atmospheres… 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.
To Bless the Space Between Us, by Irish poet, philosopher, author and priest John O’Donohue
We all reach thresholds in our lives – some welcome, some not. A sudden death or illness is a threshold we involuntarily cross. Where nothing is ever the same after the moment happens. We didn’t get to vote or have an opinion. It just is. And we’re across the threshold before we can even process what happened, with no notice or preparation.
The voluntary thresholds can be tough in a different way. The ones where you’re staring down the barrel of a new path or new goodbye – and must affirmatively take the step to embrace it – those are tricky. So many reasons to say “no.” Not always a lot of logical reasons to say “yes.” Just the inner voice that propels you to cross. Tells you it’s time. And the courage to listen and to act.
I voluntarily crossed a threshold today. I neither leapt across in joy nor was dragged. I just quietly crossed. You see, my beloved Gunny left me ten years ago today. How could a decade have passed when he is so present in my mind and heart? I still feel the nudge of his nose, propelling me forward, just like he used to nip at my butt to propel me to the kitchen to feed him! Today, I renew my faith in him. In us. In his ability to see things more clearly than me.
Sooooo, I hired a talented, thoughtful, and spiritually aware screenwriter to adapt The Endless Path into a screenplay. Maybe it will be a movie. Maybe it will be a miniseries. Too early to know! But in about 60 days, we’re going to give birth to a bouncing baby screenplay that I hope will make Gunny’s message of love and hope more accessible to people everywhere. As importantly, I want his message of honoring the sacred wisdom and intelligence of animals to be heard far and wide.
To everyone who has walked alongside me to the threshold, thank you. Now step on across with Gunny and me on our new adventure. If past is prologue, it’s sure to be a wonderful, wild ride!!