Doors, Dualism, and Inhabiting the Space Between

on doors

“But what if the room only has one?” asked fox.

“Then, look for a window,” replied bear.

“What if there are no windows?” fox went on.

“I think you might be missing the point,” bear laughed.

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📷: An amazing space-to-place transformation realized by the fabulous designer and sweetest soul Denedra of Lunden Simone Interior Design and featuring three of my Risenshine mobiles.
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Thoughts while thinking
To keep in, to keep out.
To open, to close.
To lock, to unlock.
To enter, to leave.

Doors are complicated.

Upon inspection, their function seems to be more a matter of perspective than fact – with much determined by where you’re standing in any given moment.

And it’s reflected in how we talk about them:

We say they are either open or closed.

You’re either inside or out.

Again, your definition depending on your relative disposition.

The threshold, however, that space between, never changes.

Whether you are coming or going, going or coming, it simply is.

Neither inside nor out.
Neither opened nor closed.

It resists dualistic definition.

I’ve taken to reading in the pre-dawn night, sitting by my front window, watching a rectangle of world emerge.

My chair is angled southeast, to catch the sun. It also faces my front door.

That photo below shows you what I see.

A mezuzah above.
An encaustic to the left that reads, “I love you.”
And a healthy pig to the right.

I was once asked to pause at this door. And I often do.

Now more than ever.

Doors close for many reasons.
Rarely, however, do they remain that way.

Yet, we are quick to say: “When one door closes, another opens,” rushing each other to the next.

Are we so uncomfortable with the unknown of in between, the liminality of not knowing, that we deem doors closed (or open), pressuring to find another?

What might happen if we saw doors less as open-and-closed and more as between-and-through?

What might emerge if we resisted definition altogether, seeing that same door as a place to pause and listen for as long as needed, awakening to the endless opportunities for growth, rather than – perhaps – prematurely naming it either this or that?

What “closed door” might you reflect more expansively upon today?