Doors and Dialogue: Barriers or Sacred Thresholds?

Have you ever thought about how many phrases or idioms use the image of a door?  Here are a few, and I am sure you can add to this list!

• Be at death's door.
• Knocking on Heaven's door.
• Get a foot in the door.
• Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
• You make a better door than a window. 
• Behind closed doors. 

Take a minute and let the images come to mind: doors as barriers; wondering what is happening behind the door; or getting past closed doors.

Closed, colorful doors may still be seen as barriers

During a recent Dialogue Learning Group meeting, Darcy and Bob used the image of a door to talk about how we experience barriers and dialogue.  Just think of those times when a  relationship or conversation is blocked or stopped by misunderstanding, mistrust, or doubts.

Learning to distinguish between locks,
knockers, and handles

What would happen if we looked at the door differently, re-imagining the door not as a barrier but as an opportunity.  For instance, ponder the hardware that adorns many doors:  the lock, the knocker, and the handle.  Would our lives be any different if we saw these as distinct aspects of an invitation:

• The Lock - as an invitation to respect the door and the contents behind it.
• The Knocker - as an invitation to request entry.
• The Handle - as an invitation to cross the sacred threshold of the life beyond the door.

Sacred thresholds: seeing opportunity

The gift of dialogue, I believe, is the ability to distinguish these different aspects of the door.  We are invited to move from seeing only a barrier to understanding the gift that each person brings to the conversation.

The Invitation and the Gift become the Sacred Threshold that the door protects and honors, the ability to welcome and be welcomed into an awareness of and compassion for the Other.  Dialogue allows the door to be opened freely and willingly.

Questions to consider this week:

• What Doors am I experiencing right now?  How might I re-imagine them?
• How might I respect and honor the Lock and the Gift behind the Door?
• When might I use the Knocker to seek an invitation into another person's life?  Can I hear and accept:  Wait!  Not yet! ?
• Am I aware of and respectful of the Sacred Thresholds as I pass through the Door and move beyond?

And, another door-related phrase to end this reflection:  Open Sesame, the magical phrase that opened the mouth of the cave in One Thousand and One Nights, to the treasures within!

May Doors, Dialogue and Sacred Thresholds open new treasures for you this week as you seek to understand and to be understood!

Larry Gardepie