It turns out that you don’t necessarily have to cross a threshold. You could, instead, sit yourself down on the stoop and visit with your neighbors or have a rest or simply wait to see what happens next.
What threshold are you choosing not to cross?
Essence
“When we look at thing, we must examine its essence and treat its appearance merely as an usher at the threshold, we must, once we cross the threshold, grasp the essence of the thing.”
―Mao Zedong
What has surprised you once you have come to understand its essence rather than its appearance?
Park It
Parking is a thing that you do only because it enables you to do something else. Nobody parks a car for the fun of it. But anyone who has wandered in ever larger circles looking for a spot that isn’t there knows just how much difference a parking spot can make.
What do you appreciate, not for itself, but rather for what it makes possible?
The Place of Expectation
“Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient. To act is easy, to think is hard; to act according to our thought is troublesome. Every beginning is cheerful: the threshold is the place of expectation.”
―Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What thought and planning are you putting into a threshold you see in your life?
Monochrome
For those of us in cold climates, winter is the time when color is hard to find, and everything tends to fade to a wash of gray. But the lack of color invites us to find beauty in texture and form, in shapes we might fail to notice in more lush times of year.
What subtle beauty do you see around you?