“Everybody wants to rush through transition like it’s a bad root canal. But transition is a threshold. It’s a sacred life appointment—the crossing from one world to another. You are compelled to let go of fear and uncover uncanny power. Transition, if you choose, is a way of being trained in magic.”-Tama Kieves

I have long been fascinated with borders and boundaries; the edges between one plane of existence and another. When I was a tween in in the late 60’s (before that term was even conceived), my family went on vacation to a locale that was on the border between NY and PA. I was amazed that if I stood on one side of the street, I was in the Keystone State and on the other The Empire State. I kept jumping back and forth between them, delighted with the experience.

As a recovering co-dependent, I have learned that appropriate boundaries are necessary for healthy relationships and yet there are times when I am called on to re-configure my sense of what that means, since I also love the spiritual concept of One-ness.  In my interactions with people in my life, there are times when I have a foot in both ‘states’ and that definitely stretches my boundaries…good thing I have been practicing yoga for the past 8 years.

I have also discovered in the past 53 years that transition is part and parcel of a well lived life; yoga off the mat. I can deny it, resist it, fight it, stomp my feet literally and figuratively, but it’s gonna happen no matter what. In an effort to push past it, I have often been lacking in compassion for myself, as if I was on a piece of exercise equipment, saying “Come on, you can do it. Five more minutes….give it some effort!” rather than coasting for a change, knowing that I am going to get through it. What if instead, I was to view it from Tama’s perspective and see it, not as a chore, but a charm?  An invitation from the Universe to dance with it as I had from state to state 40 some years ago. What if I saw myself as a magician, trained in the unseen, but deeply felt wisdom of creation? What couldn’t I do? As I release fear of the unknown (and isn’t it ALL unknown, until it isn’t?), I can leap into love, cast myself into the waiting metaphorical arms of God/dess and cross the open threshold from where I am to where I desire to be. I am eager to see what awaits on the other side of it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl3vxEudif8 Changes by David Bowie