Episode 11: On Transitions and Ellipses -- Living into the In-Between

Pause, Purpose, Possibility

I’ve been thinking a lot about transitions lately. Shifts in life. The long, slow turn into the New Year. Some of it has been about change, loss, grief. Letting go, moving on. In this episode I tell the story of three small birds that have found their way down the chimney (even though the damper was closed), become trapped in the stove, and died. "I slowly lift each one out with the fingers of my right hand and lay them side-by-side in the palm of my left. Each is about two, two-and-a-half inches long, fuzzy dark gray feathers (such that they blend right in to the ashes in the stove), with short sharp beaks."

On the day after my encounter with these birds, a wise friend reminded me of the power and importance of ellipses. In telling a story, he marked a crucial turn by saying “Dot, dot, dot,” verbally indicating the written device … that would signal a pause, an in-between space, the cusp or hinge between what has gone before and what’s yet to come. His speaking them aloud, drawing them with his voice – dot dot dot – immediately brought to my mind’s eye the fuzzy gray mounds laying side by side across the palm of my hand – dot dot dot.

There is power in attending to the ellipses in our lives, dwelling in the turn from what was to what might be. Just being in it for a while. In threshold times we are invited to honor, grieve, appreciate, and learn from what lies behind us; breathe in the often astonishing, iridescent details of the here-and-now; and begin to turn to wonder about what’s yet to come.