I’m in a liminal space today. It sounds romantic, but this version isn’t.
In case you don’t know, liminality is defined as: “of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition.” In a practical sense, it means we are ending our current sit and heading off to the next one. That’s always a liminal space, and it can be an interesting one! Things often become unsteady and surprising in the liminal space as the boundaries fluctuate.
With our current transition, it turns out that our next sitting engagement has evaporated. The family had a vacation planned in Cornwall. But unfortunately their daughter broke her leg and is going to have surgery on Monday, so their vacation is canceled. Yikes!
They have thoughtfully provided for us, however. Apparently the homeowner’s father is in the process of selling a house in the area, and we have been invited to stay there for a week so we won’t be left out in the cold. Instead, we’ll be in lovely accommodations with no pets to look after, so it will be like having a week’s vacation at a free AirBnB!
It gets even more interesting! The homeowners who are returning here had their flight canceled and have been re-booked onto a different flight Sunday. That leaves Lorca alone without any caretakers. Noooooo! So we have offered to stay for one more night and that way he'll be taken care of.
These liminal spaces get mighty crazy!
How does this relate to typology? I’m so glad you asked.
Robin and I are both “Js.” And it “jangles our J” when unexpected events encroach upon our carefully laid plans. It’s disquieting! (And that’s true for everybody, not just Js. J and P are about how one responds to the news.)
In our case, we were informed about the situation soon enough to pull back, regroup, and chart a new course for ourselves. And we are lucky to have considerate homeowners who are generous with their hospitality.
Both of us are leaning heavily into our intuition to navigate the situation going forward—and truthfully this is the kind of thing intuition is made for! We resent the upheaval of our careful plans (“we plan; God laughs”), but we are actually at our best when we are surrounded by unknowns and trying to peer around corners. It’s one of the reasons this lifestyle appeals to us: we are coasting gloriously on our intuition from beginning to end—no guide wires for us!
Keep your eyes on this space. We’ll tell you more about the situation as it unfolds (I feel like a news broadcaster as I write those words).
Also, in the countdown to this departure, Lorca the adorable dog was taken away by a dog walker to care for. So while we pack and launder and run last-minute errands, we are vividly aware of his absence. He's a permanent fixture of the home in our minds, and the house feels depressingly empty without him.
I always forget how hard it hits me to say goodbye to our animals. It's quite a wrench. We really do fall in love with them every time.
In preparation for our transition, we made a point of visiting the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst as I promised we would.
Emmeline Pankhurst was a militant champion of woman’s suffrage, whose 40-year campaign achieved complete success in the year of her death, when British women gained full equality in voting rights. She made three tours of the United States to lecture on woman’s suffrage, and likewise visited Canada and Russia. She was jailed more than a dozen times, eventually turning to extreme militancy in the form of arson.
I wanted to visit her house and take the full tour, but that venue is closed and will re-open next week, shortly after we leave.
We also grabbed a minute to visit the John Rylands library. For us, this library was all about the building, which is late-Victorian neo-Gothic, and its façade is extraordinary.
The Rylands is part of the Manchester University library system. Their special collections, believed to be among the largest in the United Kingdom, include medieval illuminated manuscripts, a Gutenberg Bible, and a papyrus that they claim is the earliest existing New Testament text. Unfortunately, you don't see any of that on the tour—you only have the thrill of knowing they are somewhere nearby.
The reading room is quite inviting with its church-like design. I wish I had the luxury of hanging out there to read and research.
I satiated my curiosity by admiring the architecture, complete with stained glass windows, gargoyles, and carvings of grotesques and dragons (lots of dragons) throughout the interior, which were great fun.
If you attended my webinar last week you'll know we had a great time! If you didn't attend, I'm sorry you missed it. I plan to do more down the road, so stay tuned to this space.
In the meantime, if you want to work with me in coaching or to be guided through my structured Type Discovery process, contact me and I'll happily set that up. As my clients will tell you, it is a thoroughly enlightening experience!
Ciao for now…
warmly,
-Dr. Vicky Jo