We live a few minutes walk from the Pacific Ocean.

Every evening people gather on the bluff overlooking the beach to witness the sunset. As the sky changes colors and the sun nudges the horizon everyone gets very quiet.

It’s a threshold moment.

The crossing point from day to night—and it focuses attention. People stop moving and talking in order to be present as the sun melts into the sea. And, just a few blocks away from this stillness—cars rush along the freeway at 70 miles an hour.

Thresholds are sacred symbols.

They mark the place where what is ending has not yet transformed into that which is about to be.

Are you at a threshold?

Do you sense that something deep and fundamental is shifting in your life? Something that is inviting you to step out of an old way of being and into . . . well . . . that’s not exactly clear.

Fog accumulates at the threshold.

It makes it hard to see the next step.

What’s the fog?

It’s the patterns of thoughts/emotions/beliefs that have guided you in the past. The whole inner structure that you’ve relied on—and that’s served you—is now in the way. The patterns of the past are blocking your view. They’re fogging your awareness.

You can’t banish these foggy patterns of the past.

But, you can learn to see them for what they are—patterns woven of thought/emotion/sensations.

As you see and experience the patterns for what they are . . . the fog lifts and next step is clear. Ahhh . . . clarity. It sounds so much better than being fogged in. And it is.

So, how to get that clarity?

You can’t get clarity directly.

If you try to push thought/emotions away—everything gets foggier. You can’t force clarity, but you can develop it. Clarity comes through cultivating meditative awareness.

Meditation practice dissolves the fog of thought/emotion.

It strengthens your capacity to meet the uncertainties of life with courage and to move into each moment with clarity. Meditation doesn’t mean you won’t stumble.

It does mean that you’ll more quickly find your feet—with more compassion and deeper learning.

 

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Editor: Bryonie Wise