HUUF WEEKLY

This, from Richard Rohr:
“Liminal Space is a concept refined by Victor Turner in his classic study on initiation and ritual.  The Latin word limen means “threshold.” Liminality is an inner state and sometimes an outer situation where people can begin to think and act in genuinely new ways. It is when we are betwixt and between, have left one room but not yet entered the next room, any hiatus between stages of life, stages of faith, jobs, loves, or relationships.  It is that graced time when we are not certain or in control, when something genuinely new can happen.  We are empty, receptive, an erased tablet waiting for new words.”

He goes on:
“Nothing fresh or creative will normally happen when we are inside our self-constructed comfort zones, only more of the same.  Nothing original emerges from business as usual….Much of the work of […] human destiny itself is to get people into liminal space and to keep them there long enough to learn something essential and genuinely new.  It is the ultimate teachable space.  In some sense, it is the only teachable space….Once-a-week church services do not normally come close to creating liminal space.  It takes that long for you just to stop wondering whether you turned off the stove and begin to the get kids—or your errant emotions—under control.  There has to be something longer, different, and daring, even nonsensical, to break our comfortable sleepwalk and our compulsive trance…
“The bubble of usual order has to be broken by a bit of whimsy, holy uselessness, deliberate disruption or displacement, learning to walk in the opposite direction.  In liminal space we sometimes need to not-do and not-perform according to our usual successful patterns.  We actually need to fail, fast, and deliberately falter to understand the other dimension of life.  We need to fast instead of eating, maintain silence instead of talking, experience emptiness instead of fullness, anonymity instead of persona, pennilessness instead of plentifulness.

In liminal space we descend and intentionally do not immediately come back out or up; we seek status reversal instead of status, social displacement instead of social belonging…. Without good spiritual direction, however, you will run from the inner chaos and the aimlessness.  Without deliberate practice and training over time, you will not know how to face loneliness, yourself, hurts, personality conflicts, and your inner demons and patterns…If it is our temperament to seek security, we will run back to the old room that we have already constructed.  If it is our temperament to take risks, we will quickly run to a new room of our own making and liking.  Hardly anyone wants to stay on the threshold without answers. …   …New things never happen when you are accumulating more self or more ideas and answers; new things happen when you are constricted and limited, and when what you think of as yourself is temporarily or permanently taken away.”

And so, rather than rush towards my next streak – of doing, of shoring up momentum and certainties this past year-and-a-half left us all bereft of.  I am taking the cue from my body and my tired, fog-filled mind.  To sit inside the uncomfortable, liminal space for now. To allow uncertainty to grow new possibilities, new knowings, new muscles inside my heart and being.

To rest inside the undoing a bit longer.  In hopes that it will weight the movement yet to come with the gravity of purpose, clarity & the presence of one who’s had the courage to pause inside the threshold.

May you honor the spaces you inhabit at this moment, beloved.  Whether they be delightful or dubious.  May we summon the spirit needed to live inside this new room, this new world.  And may we tend, meet & buoy each other there.

yours,
in grace & gratitude,
Amy Day (she/her)
Fellowship Engagement Coordinator

We’ll be talking about Bridges. 
About moving from one space to the next and what we want to take with us. And what we want to leave behind.
Join us if you can in this rich and inclusive space for All AGES.

If weather allows, please join us for our next, in-person.. 
 Multi-Generational Song Circle 

Second Saturday of the month, next circle June 12th, 2-3:00 pm at HUUF

Sandy Lynn, Scarlett Trippsmith and others will be bringing out their trusty ukuleles, and sharing some fun, accessible sing-along songs with us on the back patio at HUUF.  We’ll stay socially distanced in accordance with state guidelines around singing (and masked, if you prefer).  Please, join us for this fun, heart-lifting gathering!
(Psssst… Will move to the following week if rain gets in our way.)

Open Soul Matters Group 

 Open Soul Matters Group has rescheduled it’s June 10 meet up and will now meet  IN PERSON at HUUF on Thursday, June 17 at 10:00 AM  – Join Amy Day as she facilitates this final meeting before summer break- The theme discussed will be “Play”

HUUF’s Tech wizard, Scarlett Trippsmith, is putting together a Video Diary of All of HUUFs Members, to Present to Our New Minister, Peter Farriday, when he arrives. This is so he can get to know HUUF and its Members, matching names and faces to stories.

To participate or find out more, please contact Scarlett:  it@huuf.org ASAP