John ODonohue gave voice to the connection between beauty and those edges of lifethresholds was the word he lovedwhere the fullness of reality becomes more stark and more clear. If you go back to the etymology of the word threshold, it comes from threshing, which is to separate the grain from the husk. So the threshold, in a way, is a place where you move into more critical and challenging and worthy fullness. There are huge thresholds in every life. You know that, for instance, if you are in the middle of your life in a busy evening, fifty things to do and you get a phone call that somebody you love is suddenly dying, it takes ten seconds to communicate that information. But when you put the phone down, you are already standing in a different world. Suddenly everything that seems so important before is all gone and now you are thinking of this. So the given world that we think is there and the solid ground we are on is so tentative. And a threshold is a line which separates two territories of spirit, and very often how we cross is the key thing.
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About Krista Tippett
Krista Tippett was American journalist, author, and entrepreneur. Krista Tippett is an American journalist, author, and public intellectual. Since 2003, she has served as creator and host of the Peabody Award winning program On Being. Read more on Wikipedia →