The Spaces In Between

we carve nature into all sorts of categorical spaces - but some of the most interesting spaces are in between...

LIMINAL
of, relating to, or being
an intermediate state, phase, or condition;
in-between,
transitional

This icicle is in-between me and a winter forest. It draws me into its liminal space, where it is receiving the images of towering trees and re-transmitting them to my eyes in a soulful interpretation of wavy contour and prism color.

I pause in an intermediate state between my physical senses and my emotional understanding. This is the forest, in-between.

These icicles are in-between me and a blue evening sky, which they have gathered into crystal repeaters, bouncing the signals around their amplification chambers, to re-transmit them through the wavelengths of sparkling rays of low angle sun.

Everything about an icicle is an ephemeral freeze-frame on the boundary between two worlds. They form on boundaries, edges of roofs and cliffs and streams. They are suspended in a boundary state, solid only until temperatures rise or they are touched by a ray of sun. And then, they are in motion again, creating new liminal spaces, one drop at a time.

The space between an icicle and its droplet is meditation.

Pause. Watch the droplet form. And fall. And form again. Can you predict the precise moment when it will fall? As many as you watch, I assure you, you can’t! Can you be certain that, the moment one launches into freedom, another has already begun its journey? Absolutely. Each drop is certain in its journey - each drop is unpredictable in its timing. The mixing layer of certainty and uncertainty at the tip of an icicle is surely a microcosm of life fit for any transcendental meditation!

INTERSTITIAL
occurring in or being an interval
or intervening space or segment;
of, relating to, or forming an interstice

Humans make metronomes. Mechanically precise interval definers, ticking and tocking with rhythmic constraint. Nature makes droplets. Gracefully inevitable interval definers, brimming and launching with fluid dynamic.

INTERSTICE
a space that intervenes between things

As each droplet surrenders to gravity’s attraction, a new spaces opens in between. It’s a fascinating little space, populated as it is by several teenier droplets that have been swept along by all the energy.

INTERSTICE
a gap or break in something generally continuous

Eventually, all the droplets run together, melding into continuous streams until the icicle becomes a memory translated into atmospheric humidity and ground water. Can you look at the boundary between earth and sky and see the icicles that were in-between?

INTERSTICE
a short space of time between events

In the end, all of life has only been a short space of time between events.

And all of it can flash before you in the spaces between the droplets falling from a winter icicle.

Thanks for connecting here at Nature Moments, where we are making the world a better place, one nature connection at a time :) Be curious. Be amazed. And then do it again!

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definitions from: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary