Threshold

     When I sat in the garden on my Mae Rim ride the other day, I had my long lens out snapping various objects and trees.   As I panned, I saw this doorway.   If you look closely, it has two swinging doors which if closed would hardly keep the dog out that was wondering about the area.  Like most doorways here, it has a 2-3 inch threshold that in addition to keeping out water and snakes... requires one to be aware of stepping up and into a new space.

     When I come to my Thai residence, I come into a covered marble floor area for the motorbike and come to a glass door that requires me to use a fob to open…buzz, and you push open the door and leave the open space area.   There are two flights of marble stairs that allow for more transition. With all the bodywork I am having, acupuncture needles and heat twice a week, two-hour massage of my deep tissues once a week, and various other hour foot massages along with magnesium spray and the Chinese White Flower rub, I can do the flights of stairs in normal walking order.  However, it is not a rush.. or mindless walk but more like a meditation walk.  I put my foot down and step and lift and move the other foot and leg to the next step.  The cadence is in four beats.  Sometimes, I have to move to the side as another is running or doing two stairs at a time to get someplace in a hurry.  I think, what a gift the stairs are so that I can have the time to leave the roadway, the bike, the responsibility of the drive and enter my transition chamber.   Breath. 

     My room door also has a threshold of about 2-3 inches.   I can not just open the door but must use a key.. turn the lock and then step in.  Just inside the doorway, is a foot pad for my outside shoes and my slippers for my inside feet.

     I put my outside items and my purchase items in a proper place, my keys – motorbike and door, hang on the chain for the door.  In the evening, before I go out, I put the flashlight on the end of the bed, so I have the “torch” to get me to the desk lamp or next to bed lamp.

     Since I was a very young child, I did not like overhead lights unless they were muted and artistic.   The two lights here are neither, so they stay dim.

I have been thinking about the transitions we take from room to room, out to in, alone and with others.  We slip so freely from one to the other, but it is also the opportunity to bring your present self to the new place.  We have 1000 of opportunities for stepping through the “gateless gates,” for starting new, for be present in the new space and always with a “new” self.

      There are many times in my day that for a moment,  I wonder where I am and who I am and I feel like I have been dropped into a area that I can hardly see the sky.  And then I just stand up and there is a very clear way.

     Today, I will try to be more awake and aware of the opportunity of stepping over the threshold and to being a more present person to each situation and with each person, I pass.