Trusting Change

Karen Hering

Description

Building-on a popular two-month program, “Crossing and Blessing Our Thresholds,” that she leads every year at Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul Minnesota, Karen Hering offers pastoral support and spiritual skills building for individuals on the cusp of personal change within the collective context of a world that is reshaping itself at a faster pace than ever. This unique and timely approach makes Trusting Change stand out among its comparison titles. More than just a “how-to” guide, Trusting Change is a beautifully written and evocative work that readers can turn to time and again. This is a book that does not pretend change is easy but notes its inevitability and some of the ways readers can participate in it, allowing them to trust it more in the future.

Beginning Here

A threshold, including the open doorway above it, has more typically served, literally and figuratively, to name our human experience of change and the site where it happens. A threshold is the meeting place between inside and outside, between here and there, between the familiar and the unknown. In my own life transitions, and in programs I lead for others in their times of change, I have followed the poetic tradition of naming these passages thresholds, and the ones crossing over them “thresholders.”

In its most literal definition, a threshold is a strip of wood or stone at the base of a doorway. In many houses, it is a sill intended to keep the mud from washing into the home. In my cold, northern climate, it is also an important barrier to keeping the cold from sweeping into the house in the winter. In China, a threshold might be three or more inches high, keeping the rainwater outside but also encouraging attentiveness and an awareness of the honor of being invited into someone’s home.

The word threshold also describes the doorway itself and the larger entrance into a building or home. It represents a contact point between interior safety and the outside world. Traditionally, it has been regarded as a site of encounter, risk, and danger. It can be a place of separation, requiring us to leave something, someone, or perhaps even some part of ourselves behind when crossing in either direction. It is a locus of vulnerability where we face the possibilities of transformation, not only in our surroundings but often in identity. On the other side of a threshold, we might be required to do things we’ve never done before, to face fears we have shunned for years, or to discover new gifts as well as limitations.

Honoring the risks and challenges present on the threshold, many cultures have stories, rituals, blessings and sometimes even deities offering protection and safe passage. In ancient Rome, the god Janus reigned over comings and goings. His image, carved over the gates of Roman cities, showed two faces connected at the back and pointed in opposite directions. With one face looking outward from the city gate and the other looking in, Janus provided protection while reminding those passing in either direction to notice what they were leaving and where they were going. Here, in the pages of this book, I hope you will find protected time for similarly noticing both what you are departing from and where you are headed, whatever the thresholds you are crossing.

Chrysalis Space

What thresholds are you on now that are especially resonant to you? How might you describe them—are they wide or high? Welcoming or frightening? Are you crossing them alone or with others? Are they personal or collective or even global? And are you more inclined to face behind you, toward what you are leaving or before you, toward the place where you’re going? As you begin reading, you might also begin reflecting, perhaps in a new notebook or journal devoted to your thresholds. Take a moment before reading on to name the thresholds, in your personal life, in your community, and in the world that caused you to pick up this book. Are there other thresholds that now occur to you as important in your life today? Name one wish you have as you begin or continue your passage through this time of change.

Prologue

Introduction

How to Use This Book

Beginning Here

NO LONGER

1. Letting Go

2. Grieving

3. Practicing Equanimity

THE PAUSE

4. Taking Part in Stillness

5. Navigating the Unknown

6. Preparing for the Journey

7. Claiming Companions

NOT YET

8. Moving On

9. Imagining a Way

10. Widening What We Trust

Honoring Our Journey

Sujets

• Santé et bien-être
• Développement personnel
• Santé mentale & traumatisme
• Personal Growth
• Bereavement
• Espiritual
• Body (disambiguation)
• Spiritual
• General officer
• Self-help
• General
• Grief
• Death

Informations

• Publié par: Skinner House Books
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781558968851
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

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