Saturday, November 29, 2025
No man’s land, limbo, reinvention periods, slumps, downturns, and drift are purgatory. The in-between times can be just as useful. Twirling points.
Hell is an insufferable existence. It’s extreme pain and inner twisting, gut wrenching horror and sting. I’ve been to hell. Heaven is bliss. It’s the equanimity and serenity of the inner condition. I’ve been to heaven – enrapturing, ecstatic moments and times of laughter and excitement, whisked away from trouble, lost in love and wonder. Jesus said heaven is within, and that it’s here now. He wasn’t talking about the so-called afterlife. If heaven is here, why wouldn’t hell or purgatory be equally presentable – twirling us about?
Purgatory are times when you’re not sure. Things seem dormant. No offers. No desire. No direction. Little momentum. This neutral ground is important to our formation, and I understand why the Catholics invented it.
Limbo happens to us all. “Waiting” for the doctor to call. “Looking” for the opportunity. “Wondering” about the outcome. The time lived from paycheck to paycheck. The in-between, the bridge which links sections of your symphonic life. Rests. Cesuras. Fermatas. Ever been unsure?
A fermata is a note or rest elongated without measurement. Imagine existing in a fermata. The conductor holds out – no downbeat, no direction, hanging, and suspended. Are you in suspense? Or can you enjoy the so-called hang time?
Hanging doesn’t imply “on the edge or verge.” It’s a strip to reinvent, find the silver lining, reimagine, and to whirl around. Take the sabbaticals. Be OK in the no-man’s land of “drift.” From out of it, newness arises.
How could we arise to our personal heaven without having been dead in our own, personal hell? Consider purgatory times. From the twinkling of an eye, a new heaven and a new earth arise, where sighing and pain are no more.
Having been awakened, I think to myself, “What a wonderful twirl!”