Leading Your Life in Liminal Space

This past year I have found myself on a very long and unanticipated journey, but last week I was finally able to get my first vaccination shot. That moment felt significant, much like a mile marker when you’ve been lost in the wilderness. 

For me, the last 13 months have been a prolonged experience in liminal space. The mental picture that is often used to describe liminal space is that of a trapeze artist who has let go of one bar and is now flying freely through the air while reaching for the next bar that is coming toward them. Liminal space is when a trapeze artist is holding on to nothing; it is a moment in time, or in our case, a season of transition. 

Liminal space is the undefined space between two defined spaces. We have been living between a pre-COVID and post-COVID world, between what we knew and what is yet to come, between our old familiar normal and our new normal, for more than a year. 

At some point this year, I realized I was holding on to a lot of fear which was impacting my extended liminal experience. Each day I, a small business owner, was fearful that it was all going to fall apart. Picture me in a B-grade Keanu Reeves movie. I am the character with a bomb strapped to my chest. The entire plot is centered around me not making a sudden move that causes a massive explosion. I spent a great deal of this year frozen in fear, fear that the bomb would go off. 

And it did go off. 

I lost clients. 

Events were canceled. 

The ways I had been showing up for those I serve were no longer effective. 

And yet, in the midst of all that, I gained new clients. 

I was hired for creative online events. 

I reinvented how to do the work I love. 

The fact is, in a season of “in betweens” I was still responsible for leading my life. But I found it to be a painful and challenging task to efficiently lead my life while in liminal space. I had lost all sense of direction and I could find no road map to guide me. I felt the pressure to lead my life, but I also realized I haven’t been here before so how could I know the way? The issue is compounded by the fact that while flying through liminal space I watched time and again as my feet flipped over my head and up felt like down and down felt like up. I have discovered that in these disorienting moments the invitation for all of us is to simply explore this new space with an open heart and mind. In doing so, I have unearthed some gems and found myself growing in ways I could never have anticipated. 

I had to let go of the fear to transform my experience of liminal space and then that liminal space returned the favor and transformed me. Once I set down the fear, I was able to see all the possibilities that this temporary space held for me. 

I don’t know what a post-COVID world will be like, but I do know that in releasing the fear which I was holding on to so tightly, I now have two hands free, open, and ready to grab on to whatever is coming next.

We aren’t meant to stay in liminal space forever, so lead your life in a way that allows you to let go of the fear you are holding on to, so that you can embrace what is next. 

In March of 2020 it all fell apart and I am still here. 

You are still here. 

We are going to be okay.

And I am excited about what is next. 

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