Thresholds

In all our lives, there are thresholds, moments which offer the promise of either transformation or transgression.  Thresholds & moments that change us & determine the kind of human beings we will be from that moment going forward.

Once, a long day ago, I had such a pivotal moment, a chance to embrace life or go on being reticent & afraid.

Sometimes a threshold is a little thing.

When I was very young, I was molested & it left me wounded.  

Unable & unwilling to physically reach out & touch someone else, unable to accept another's touch. 

 

It was not that I did not want to reach out & it was not that I did not want to accept another's affection or expression of that affection.

I was reticent & resistant & afraid.  Even with my family.

And then there was a moment.    

After a surprise birthday party for a friend.  As the party concluded & we all walked toward our vehicles, everyone was hugging everyone & the honoree spontaneously reached out & hugged me.

The touch was not threatening.  I was not reticent or resistant.  I was not afraid.

Sometimes a threshold is a little thing.  A word, a smile, a spontaneous hug.

On that day, at that threshold, I was not afraid.  Of the touch, or of its source.

Sometimes a little thing is life altering.  This particular little thing was.

So thanks are in order, & long overdue.  Thank you.