Transition: The Possibility of Transformation
Transition is the process of changing from one state or condition to another. It represents a change in the status quo. You can transition from adolescence to adulthood, from being single to being committed to another person, from being childless to having a child, from being a student to graduating and starting a career, from marriage to a single state, or from good health to a chronic or even life-threatening medical condition.
Obviously some transitions are more desirable than others. Some are chosen, while others may be thrust upon us.
Since transition is a process, it’s never instantaneous. You aren’t an adolescent one day and an adult the day after, no matter what birthday you may be celebrating. You don’t become a wife or a husband as soon as you’re pronounced married. And I can report from my own experience that it takes a bit of time to wrap your head around the transition from being a healthy person to someone with chronic health issues.
All of these kinds of transitions are—in one way or another—transformational in that they radically alter either who we are or our perception of who we are—or both. We start out being one person, and we end up becoming someone else. That takes time. When my partner died suddenly nearly 14 years ago, I experienced the transition from being with him (which I had been for 30 years) to being by myself in stages, the most disorienting being the first six months.
While navigating the transition from one state or condition to another, we’re neither who we were before nor who we will become. The transitional space between these two versions of ourselves is called liminal space.
In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between them, there are doors. —William Blake
Liminal comes from the Latin word for threshold. A doorway, for example, represents a physical liminal space between two rooms or between the inside and the outside. Other physical examples include bridges; elevators, lobbies, and hallways in buildings; or courtyards in between buildings.
Liminal space is relational. It only arises between a distinct here and a distinctthere. It’s also dynamic, meaning characterized by constant change, activity, or progress. It’s uncertain space. The brain doesn’t like uncertainty. It wants to be either here or there, but never in between. Arriving at your destination (your location or desired outcome) is satisfying to your brain because it closes the door, so to speak, on liminal space.
Another way to eliminate liminal space—and the uncertainty and discomfort that are a natural part of it—is to stay (or try to stay) here and give up going (or refuse to go) there.
Transition always offers the possibility of transformation.
Liminal space is uncertain and ambiguous, but it is also filled with possibility. So it’s useful to be aware of the nature of such transitions—to recognize the transformational potential—and it’s important to know or learn how to navigate through them intentionally.
Liminal space gives you an opportunity to decide who you are becoming. So when you enter this transitional space, it’s prudent to ask yourself who you want to be when you get from here to there.