Liminal

Are you in-between right now?

The other day, a phenomenal human being asked how I was doing.
“I’m liminal,” I said—because I like to be honest, and I knew he would get it.
Liminality—the space between what was and what will be—has been on my mind a lot lately. I first encountered the concept in a coach training years ago. It referred to the transitions our clients navigate and the role of a coach as a grounding force in those uncertain spaces.

When I first heard it explained, it was like thunder in my belly and a homecoming all at once. I realized: I love liminality. In myself, and in others.
Most of us resist these in-between spaces. We crave clarity, certainty, resolution. But while liminality can feel unsettling—even terrifying—it can also be profoundly liberating. It gifts us with perspectives and possibilities that don’t exist in more settled places. And when we have the right support—a guide, a loving community—we can learn to move through it with more grace.
Of course, being settled has its place too. It’s all part of the cycle.

Life transitions—birth, death, career shifts, relationships beginning or ending, moving, aging—bring us all into liminality at some point.

What if, the next time you find yourself in that space, you resist the urge to rush through it? What if you linger, look around, and ask: What can I learn here? What gifts might I carry forward into what’s next?