Okay, I confess that I picked this topic purely because I love the word Liminal. I love the threshold/semi-outsider state that is “liminality” and how the communities that form in those states are so powerful and deep and strong.
At least in theory.
However I’m also in a liminal place right now. Literally between houses, with one foot in the “old house” and one foot in the “new house”. I’ve been moving the Easy Stuff all morning (aka: for about 2.5 hours) – transferring the contents of the upstairs closet the downstairs closets (yes, we each get our own closet!), shifting some of the linens from the upstairs hall closet to the downstairs workroom shelves.
Eventually I’ll start on the pantry and the fridge/freezer but, for the moment, I’m sticking with stuff that’s relatively light-weight and/or has wheels.
In reality, we’ll be in Liminal Space for much less time than most people who are busy moving – we’re just transferring apartments within the same building, so we don’t have to pack everything into travel-ready boxes or be without most of the kitchen for a significant period of time.
None the less, it’s slightly weird to try and figure out what items to bring down first, what store-room bits and pieces can be moved imediately versus which ones will need to be moved later in order to be accessible once we’re moved but before the shelving gets built.
The layout of the new place is different from the one we’re in now. It’s not just a case of there being an extra room in lieu of the linnen closet, for example. So figuring out which furniture will go where is going to be a challenge.
I keep wanting to crack open the downstairs windows (it’s unseasonably warm today – for-which I’m thankful, as it makes airing out the upstairs apartment, and taking out the copeus recycling, that much easier) and set some incense to burning on the (already moved) wood stove. to figure out where to put the altars now that the configuration of book shelves will be significantly changed.
Maia’s altar will probably do better in the main room (where I do my writing, anyway), where Misha’s will (still) be as well. Mitzu’s altar will probably stay in the bedroom. Maaka’s altar may be (again) located in the front entrance way and Mataer’s will be (as always) in the kitchen – though she may actually have an altar shelf of her own now (won’t that be nice).
But none of the altars are getting moved just yet. (That feels like the kind of thing you do at the end, to make it final and finished. The kind of thing you do just before you light everything up and call on your People to bless and inhabit the new space).
But for now, here I am, in the middle of things – one apartment is sparse and under-furnished (no bed, no dressers, no bookshelves, no food…) and very clean. The other is cluttered (as is, granted, typical) and rather chaotic. And here’s me trying to balance the two, moving all the Things from upstairs into the Space downstairs without bringing the chaotic situation with us.
Wish me luck!
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.
Urban Meliad 