Space.
Vast and immeasurable, but not out there.
A space unlike any other.
A space not yet clear.
Not like the space that shows up reliably every January; a space that compels you to think of what you want for your life.
And not like the space of completion; an invitation to look back, reviewing and learning from what’s been.
This is the space in between – the unexamined field.
As often happens when I begin to explore an idea that’s been niggling at me, it seems to show up everywhere.
First, in my research on lightning, I learned there’s a word for the space between the moment you see lightning and when you hear the thunder -svaha – a word of mysterious origin, some say Native American, I say intriguing.
Then the space of anticipation, waiting for the first prompt of the year-long adventure A Year with Myself, and a question from Patti Digh that took me by surprise:
What spaces are you standing between?
When was the last time you thought about the space in between?
I let the question sink in until the hair on the back of my neck stood up, the magic of the prompt working its way through my consciousness.
The space in between.
Think of the times you’ve been uncertain or the moments of discomfort as you stretched way beyond what you know.
In between.
Did you rush to step into a more familiar, tried and true space or or pull back paralyzed by fear?
What is so terrifying about the space in between?
And what if it’s only in that space that something new can arise?
It takes courage to sit in the space in between. To sit and breathe and trust.
Often, I’ve preferred to rush towards the space of creating, but 2011 compelled me to wait, to sit in the unknown and be with discomfort in a way I’d never experienced.
So I sat with my grief, and I sat with frustration. I sat with the urge to say yes to too many things. I sat with others and with myself in the silence of retreat.
The space in between embraced me, sometimes so tight I could hardly breathe. And still I sat.
No goal setting. No forcing the outcome. No rushing about.
And the space shifted. . .as if in slow motion, like a watercolour still wet, still blurred.
Uncomfortable became expansive, morphing into a space so foreign I hardly had words.
And a funny thing happened as I sat in that space. . .
I realized I was home.
Mm hmm… this in-between space is, for me, where innate, intuitive understanding exist. This space is easy to miss, like the empty film between the frames of a movie reel, but there is a universe of knowing inside of there. This is where stillness unfolds itself into my experience of reality, and it’s where I discover jewels of insight that often surprise and delight me. Were they there the whole time, hidden in my consciousness? Or does acknowledging and sitting inside this space pull subtle molecules from my past experiences, into a lightning bolt of insight?
This space is particularly easy to miss in the busyness of life! Your questions are a call to explore further which makes me happy 🙂
Love the word svaha and the image it evokes! I may have to rename my coaching practice Svaha. 🙂 Git yer aha at Svaha.
OK, I’ll work on that, LOL. 🙂
Another beautiful post, Sandi. You are such a poet. Much of life is spent in the svaha, if we’re lucky!
Thanks Sue, I was totally intrigued by the word too and know it will show up in future writing. After digging around, I learned it also has a Sanskrit meaning, “so be it” and that meaning appeals as well.
Beautiful! I wrote my post and it will be up tomorrow. I LOVE this particular prompt and reading how others seek to embrace this place!
It was a brilliant prompt! I love how Patti Digh described the space in between the monkey bars!
Such a lovely piece, Sandi. I am craving some time in the space between myself, only sometimes it’s hard to arrive there … sometimes we are swept past it in the rush and hustle of our days. I recently wrote about the space between in a New Year’s-ish piece: http://www.suddenlythursday.com/?p=312
Hoping to be there soon. 🙂
Love the piece Jamie, especially this line…
“The really good things in life happen in the spaces in between.”
Oh Sandi, you’ve done it again. Brilliantly written and inspired in such a way that only a woman who has sat in that in between space could write.
Yes indeed, I’ve been in that “space between” ever since I quit acting a year ago, and the journey has been a bit of push, a bit of pull…then finally a bit of flow.
You are so right – that space in between IS home. It is exactly where I need to be.
A big fat virtual hug to you, right now – go on, squeeze yourself. That’s from me 🙂
Thanks dear Sabrina! I really ((felt)) that hug 🙂
You make the space in between sound so beautiful. The discomfort of silence can be disconcerting to me sometimes back at home. It makes me feel unproductive. The nearest I could get to silence is when I go out with my camera. It gives me a reason to walk around aimlessly without the need to rush off to somewhere. I love it. I hope that I could have more moments like this in my life.
I do them but not often enough. I will set aside a day, away from the demands of my day job and the nitty gritty of maintaining a blog. Shooting rejuvenates me. I get my energy from shooting, reading, writing and being with people. One random fact: My energy gets drained really fast from shopping. Probably a bit too much of msyelf. Oh well.
Where do you get your energy from?
You could see some of my results on my photoblog, gallery.wingvantagepoint.com