Sunday morning at 8:45 am. I had just fed the cat, served myself breakfast, and was about to look out the window at my empty green lawn backended by a dozen old and tall white pines when I saw the this odd and almost silly title - "Why Does an Open Field Make Me Sad?" I could easily have moved on to the next email, but I didn't, and I began to read and I read the essay to the end, before looking out the window again and seeing my daily open field, which sometimes also makes me sad. The world is full of empty spaces, but then we have to return to where we are since we have promises to keep.
I find liminal spaces always encourage me to think of how I'd fill them up, furnish them or make them not so liminal. Encourage creativity in a weird way. Love this piece! :)
It's raining outside and I'd just opened substack after after a long time. This is the first post I saw and coincidentally it came on just as I was rewatching a childhood cartoon.
Speaking of liminal spaces like open fields, while nostalgia comes on like a gut punch to the stomach and a tender caress to the head, I also think of empty apartments as carrying a similar-but-not-the-same liminality...?
I suppose nostalgia is also a part of it, like moving out of your childhood home and looking at your now empty room like "that's where my bed used to be" "my dad measured my height on that doorframe" "i spilled paint water on this wall when I was sever, the wallpaper is still peeling off"
But while there are goodbyes to the past there are also new beginnings, a farewell to an old and loved home is also a welcoming into and making of a new one. The empty room from your childhood will transform into one that carries the weary spirit of adulthood to rest. But for just a brief moment in time, in that empty apartment, you will be at both places at once. And I think there is a lot of beauty in that.
This was a lovely piece and I enjoyed reading it alot. I rambled quite a bit even though I'm not much of a writer (actually I'm not one at all, only a reader haha) but for the first substack post I've read I'd like to make it count. Thank you for writing this.
Liminality then seems a living in the present moment exclusively with no regrets from a past and no anxiety from a future.
Kids, in their innocence, only live for now and because of it are at one with nature even though time continues ticking. This is what adults yearn for but can never have again.
I remember playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim when I was a teenage girl... I used to explore around so much that I've never been able to finish the game, I just did the side quests. Whenever I play Skyrim, I always feel that sense of longing. The solitude? The recklessness of being a kid? I don't know... And whenever I go out and see an open field just like you mentioned, I can't help but feel a bit sad. Soul is a place of yearning. Thank you for your post.
My notes on liminal spaces. I think the transformative in betweens often manifest as a state of acceptance. It's not only when our beliefs are not to mind. It is when- whatever to mind is limiting has become irrelevant. It's all about right now, and when we become apherent of this, we recognize the futility of our limits.
I've delved into this liminal space for the past month as I workon a piece related to a false helplessness that one may adapt as habit. My poems are becoming more of a transformative state. I think with acceptance of all that is comes curiousity of all that could be, but you've worded it best.
It is the difference between witnessing the world,as if a measure of theory and calculation... And experiencing the world, with understanding of all that is sincere, truthfull, and a theme in your own growth. So that all of a sudden there is space to practice living and growing. Loving this article. The more you upload the more inspired I am for my own
Also. Just uploaded this on Readwise. Do you in of it? Started using it to make highlights ghts and create a library for notes on articles which inspire me. Just discovered it. Very cool
"It is Perilous to Linger" reminds me of 'The Mirror of Erised' in the first Harry Potter movie when Dumbledore explains to Harry how men have wasted their lives staring into the mirror which means that they'll only ever have the fleeting superficial idea of their potential rather than tangibly achieving their desires which is the thing that really counts.
Excellent read. Some folks in Japan drew a diagram for me where the web of social obligations increases from childhood through middle age, and then evaporates again in old age. It seems that some happy people are those who can move in and out of the liminal spaces easily - through dancing, ritual, etc.
I think there's much more to it than you point out. I hated my childhood and wouldn't want to revisit a single piece of it for all the tea in China, yet still, plenty of these liminal spaces fill me with the same wistfulness.
Sunday morning at 8:45 am. I had just fed the cat, served myself breakfast, and was about to look out the window at my empty green lawn backended by a dozen old and tall white pines when I saw the this odd and almost silly title - "Why Does an Open Field Make Me Sad?" I could easily have moved on to the next email, but I didn't, and I began to read and I read the essay to the end, before looking out the window again and seeing my daily open field, which sometimes also makes me sad. The world is full of empty spaces, but then we have to return to where we are since we have promises to keep.
Thank you for this comment, Hans :) The world is indeed full of empty spaces, and the promises keep us here. Thanks for reading
That’s beautiful. It reminds me of Stopping by Woods by Robert Frost… perhaps explains why I love and reread that short poem often
I find liminal spaces always encourage me to think of how I'd fill them up, furnish them or make them not so liminal. Encourage creativity in a weird way. Love this piece! :)
Haha I confess I am the opposite. I love the divergence of instincts we have when it comes to liminal spaces
This read is something I was craving, now I have promised to keep.
Sigh, I have promises to keep.
It's raining outside and I'd just opened substack after after a long time. This is the first post I saw and coincidentally it came on just as I was rewatching a childhood cartoon.
Speaking of liminal spaces like open fields, while nostalgia comes on like a gut punch to the stomach and a tender caress to the head, I also think of empty apartments as carrying a similar-but-not-the-same liminality...?
I suppose nostalgia is also a part of it, like moving out of your childhood home and looking at your now empty room like "that's where my bed used to be" "my dad measured my height on that doorframe" "i spilled paint water on this wall when I was sever, the wallpaper is still peeling off"
But while there are goodbyes to the past there are also new beginnings, a farewell to an old and loved home is also a welcoming into and making of a new one. The empty room from your childhood will transform into one that carries the weary spirit of adulthood to rest. But for just a brief moment in time, in that empty apartment, you will be at both places at once. And I think there is a lot of beauty in that.
This was a lovely piece and I enjoyed reading it alot. I rambled quite a bit even though I'm not much of a writer (actually I'm not one at all, only a reader haha) but for the first substack post I've read I'd like to make it count. Thank you for writing this.
Thank you for this comment :) “for a brief moment in time you will be at both places at once”, I think captures the sense of liminality perfectly.
Liminality then seems a living in the present moment exclusively with no regrets from a past and no anxiety from a future.
Kids, in their innocence, only live for now and because of it are at one with nature even though time continues ticking. This is what adults yearn for but can never have again.
I remember playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim when I was a teenage girl... I used to explore around so much that I've never been able to finish the game, I just did the side quests. Whenever I play Skyrim, I always feel that sense of longing. The solitude? The recklessness of being a kid? I don't know... And whenever I go out and see an open field just like you mentioned, I can't help but feel a bit sad. Soul is a place of yearning. Thank you for your post.
Yes!! I felt the same with the elder scrolls Oblivion when I was a child. I credit those games somewhat with an awakening of wistfulness in me haha.
My notes on liminal spaces. I think the transformative in betweens often manifest as a state of acceptance. It's not only when our beliefs are not to mind. It is when- whatever to mind is limiting has become irrelevant. It's all about right now, and when we become apherent of this, we recognize the futility of our limits.
I've delved into this liminal space for the past month as I workon a piece related to a false helplessness that one may adapt as habit. My poems are becoming more of a transformative state. I think with acceptance of all that is comes curiousity of all that could be, but you've worded it best.
It is the difference between witnessing the world,as if a measure of theory and calculation... And experiencing the world, with understanding of all that is sincere, truthfull, and a theme in your own growth. So that all of a sudden there is space to practice living and growing. Loving this article. The more you upload the more inspired I am for my own
Also. Just uploaded this on Readwise. Do you in of it? Started using it to make highlights ghts and create a library for notes on articles which inspire me. Just discovered it. Very cool
"It is Perilous to Linger" reminds me of 'The Mirror of Erised' in the first Harry Potter movie when Dumbledore explains to Harry how men have wasted their lives staring into the mirror which means that they'll only ever have the fleeting superficial idea of their potential rather than tangibly achieving their desires which is the thing that really counts.
Absolutely amazing profound and beautiful writing and thought.
Thank you! :)
Excellent read. Some folks in Japan drew a diagram for me where the web of social obligations increases from childhood through middle age, and then evaporates again in old age. It seems that some happy people are those who can move in and out of the liminal spaces easily - through dancing, ritual, etc.
Fascinating, this explains so much. Makes me think of David Bentley Hart’s quote, “Wisdom is the recovery of innocence at the far end of experience”.
Thank you. It took me long enough to understand the “why” …
I think there's much more to it than you point out. I hated my childhood and wouldn't want to revisit a single piece of it for all the tea in China, yet still, plenty of these liminal spaces fill me with the same wistfulness.