stepping into amibiguity

 “We can use a difficult situation to encourage ourselves to take a leap, to step out into that ambiguity.” Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart

As one who has always been fascinated with liminal space, the thin space, the betwixt and between, Chodron’s “stepping into ambiguity” speaks to me. Not just as another perspective on embracing non-dualism, but also as a practice or strategy for shifting or moving when we are stuck in crisis. 

Often a crisis, a word related to cross, becomes defined by two seemingly irreconcilable conditions: life or death, poverty or wealth, war or peace, etc. But what happens at the “or”?

I believe that as these terms, and so many others intersect, there is a space at the intersection which is blurred or “queered”. In my experience that space is filled with new possibilities. And yet we hesitate and retreat toward the endpoints because they are familiar. 

Imagine what it might be like to accept Chodron’s invitation and “step into ambiguity”, to step over that threshold between what we know and what we might come to know! The liminal space of possibilities previously dismissed or denied is life-giving. The crisis is transformed and transforming.