This month our theme is LIMINAL and our framing thoughts come from Swati Kothari.

Enjoy the Moment

By Swati Kothari

Liminal - not a word I’ve heard of or used recently. And yet still, it captured the essence of life for me.

Liminal is rooted in the Latin word “limen” which means threshold. A boundary that marks a point of transition between one state and another. A place of entering or beginning. But also very much a period of waiting and not knowing. When facing major changes as a young adult, I’ve travelled through these hallways of transformation riding on clouds of anxiety, and discomfort. Be it for my graduation, new career, different countries, big house, relationships, marriage, children; the focus was always on the end game, in anticipation of a favourable outcome. Not knowing what lay at the end of the tunnel I’d often spend the time reaching there in fear of this unknown. At the time, I couldn’t understand the need to go through what I perceived as the ‘grating in the waiting’ period before it would end into a beautiful new beginning.

It was only after I’d crossed over each threshold did I start to appreciate the journey before and how it made me more. More strong. More sensible. More kind. More human.

The only constant in life is change, said Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher. No matter the phase of life that is currently active, we are in a constant state of transition - from morning to night, day by day, week after week, one year to the next. The outcome can be as happy or sad as we deem fit depending on our current active phase. A phase that is always moving to give way to the next milestone ahead. And yet we are almost always so consumed by that milestone, we forget to enjoy the journey leading up to it.

As life happened and I’ve crossed more seasoned goals over the years; the grating has subsided albeit slightly. However, the fixation on a favourable result persists. Still.

What I’m learning though - ever so slowly, is to have fun along the way from start to finish and everywhere in between. Instead of pushing forward at all times, to pause and take a look around every now and again. To see the magic unfold as it happens along the way rather than reminisce about it in hindsight. To truly appreciate not only where I’ve come from and where I’m going. But more importantly how far I’ve come.