The In-Between Times

Sue Monk Kidd jumped out at me this afternoon. I was sitting quietly, listening for . . . well, I guess for a kick start to my purpose, some renewed clarity in today’s writing. Anyway, her book caught my eye. It lay buried in a pile of other titles. I pulled it out from under the others; somehow I felt one of her most personal works, “When the Heart Waits,” was going to speak to me. I opened the book, turned only a few pages and found these words by T.S. Eliot:

“I said to my soul, be still, and wait. . ..

So the darkness shall be the light,

And the stillness the dancing.”

Ah, the time in-between . . .

The holiday season is winding down and the next year’s beginning is just days away . . . and we are making our way through an in-between, a time of waiting, both in celebration and in stillness, for something hopeful, heartfelt and soulful to take place. These longer nights and fleeting days between the year I’m losing and the one I’m moving toward have been full of times of stillness and anticipation, of wondering, and of listening to the best desires of my own soul. Though sometimes weighty with responsibility, in-between times are also beautifully remarkable with new opportunity for growth, renewal, hope and abundance.

I hope you’ll take just a bit of time to read the Evergreen. This visual is filled with a variety of words, phrases, and calls for action, each a possibility to consider and perhaps incorporate into a life beyond today. Anything you’d like to change? What do you want your soul to consider as you wait in stillness? Who do you want to become? What new year’s dance steps do you want to learn and use joyfully?

The old is darkening; the new lights our way forward. I hope you will carve out a waiting space in stillness, listening for your soul to speak, to help you shape answers to deep questions, and light your way into dancing.

I wish you the grace of light-filled days and gentle nights as you navigate all the possibilities of each soulful in-between.

With love,

Jane