Liminality

In anthropology, liminality (from Latin līmen 'a threshold'). is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the rite is complete. During a rite's liminal stage, participants "stand at the threshold" between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way (which completing the rite establishes). - From wikipedia

A few weeks ago, I left the company I helped build. I feel mixed about it. I'm sad to be leaving, grateful for the time I had, and excited to find something new. Even with the confidence that everything will be fine, the "ambiguity and disorientation" of this in-between time feel daunting. C.S. Lewis described a persistent liminal space in the opening lines of the Great Divorce.

"I seemed to be standing in a busy queue by the side of a long, mean street. Evening was just closing in and it was raining. Time seemed to have paused on that dismal moment...and just as evening never advanced to night, so my walking had never brought me to the better parts of the town."

Lewis describes this drab, gray city as an allegory for purgatory or hell. People hate waiting in line for a reason.

Most days, I feel excited, invigorated, and bursting with optimism for the next chapter of my life. But not every day.