In this year of change, we stand at both personal and collective

thresholds. A threshold implies crossing into new territory. It is more

than a transition–it is deeper. We have some obvious thresholds, such as

our birth and death, and the significant passages in between. We also have

the unseen spiritual thresholds, the times when we are guided into unknown

territory and deep authenticity. Irish poet and priest John O’Donohue

teaches that the word threshold comes from the word thresh: “To cross a

threshold is to leave behind the husk and arrive at the grain.” As Meister

Eckhart taught: “If you want the kernel, you must break the shell.”