Wonderbringers Newsletter with Monica Parker
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Hello Wonderseekers!
As we enter autumn and start planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we enter the liminal space between summer and the twinkly season. Liminal space can sometimes make us feel unsettled, as if we’re stuck on a threshold waiting for permission to step into the next phase. Some of the anxiety is based on ancient hardwiring, a message that we are in unfamiliar territory. But of course, the threshold is an illusion. The space between Point A and Point B can be broken down into a hundred points and then a thousand points and then a million. Each division shrinking the space in between to become imperceptible.
If you were to look at your life across time, it might be easy to see the summer between your senior year in high school and your freshman year in college as liminal space, but would you say your entire college experience was liminal? Your entire childhood? Probably not, but this just illustrates that the very notions of here and there are imposed boundaries.
I often say that wonder lives in liminality because it is a space that lacks form. So rather than anticipating what is coming next and filling our minds with expectation based on the known, we release our preconceptions, and the wonder around us becomes easier to spot. Liminality can occur during any life transition. It could be the change of the seasons, moving house, the end of a relationship, losing a job or losing a loved one. And the natural inclination is to hurry up and get—there. But resist.
Allow yourself to sit in the ambiguity of the moment. Don’t rush over the threshold. Be discomfited a bit. Then get curious. Explore the new environment, the new feelings, the new you. Doing so creates space for greater creativity, self-discovery, and resilience.
Some wonderbringers for me this week:
Why liminal spaces are your brain’s secret laboratory: Life’s “in-between” stages pack unique cognitive benefits if you know how to tap into them.
The eerie comfort of liminal spaces: Why we’re compelled by images of abandoned shopping malls, waiting rooms, and corridors.
Uncertainty is stressful: Here’s why we need to feel it.
Thanks to everyone who participted in the drawing by answering the question: What is the only disease to be eradicated through human action?
The answer is smallpox! And it’s what I’m researching at the moment for a possible second book. It was a terrible disease that had no treatment and killed 30% of those who caught it in only about two weeks. I am so inspired by the public health superstars who made eradication possible.
And the winner of the signed book is Wonderbringers reader Alyssa! Thanks Alyssa for joining the fun!
With wonder,
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