If you’re like me, you might have grown up with stories about magical doors where wonder, and transformation waited on the other side of the threshold: Alice In Wonderland, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and others. In those early days, I hadn’t yet been through many doors of my own. So, I enjoyed those tales without knowing life’s many gateways where travelers are changed by passing through.
Now, with some gray in my beard I spot these important portals everywhere. And I see them with the perspective of someone who has passed through many doors, even as I still have many more to discover.
Consider these gateways.
When a child leaves the womb their state of being changes. A new way of living has started and that newly minted human adapts to their new journey, in a new world. When a student takes their diploma, they are not the same as they were before they climbed the stairs and moved across the graduation stage. Devotees who emerge from baptismal waters feel a shift from their spiritual standing before the bath. And a fraternalist who works their way into a lodge, sets aside certain distinctions and dissensions when they cross the threshold into that place of fellowship.
There are so many more examples — gateways from selfishness to selflessness, and doorways from beginner, to elder, and back to wild eyed beginner once again.
We never stay the same as we move, my friends. We don’t remain unchanged as we cross life’s many thresholds. Doors are symbolic milestones of our many transformations whether those changes are lasting, or temporary. Odd Fellows have a unique appreciation for the symbol of the threshold, and what lies beyond. This symbol shows up often within our Order across meeting spaces, lessons, and the roles of both service and leadership.
Our human habit of changing from one place or stage to another, isn’t about being inauthentic or inconsistent. It’s about recognizing that change should be expected, and celebrated. The milestone places along our journey are special because they prompt us to change in different ways. And our changes are special because they were sparked, and earned by the thresholds we’ve crossed.
Honor the spaces in your life that challenge you to shift. Honor the spaces that challenge you to be more reflective, more connected, more humble, or more evolved when you pass through them. Teach others to see the value in the many thresholds we cross as we age, and grow. And never forget that there is always more to learn and explore as we journey on. The magic of those childhood stories can appear in your real life, and enrich it, if you know how to recognize the gateways.
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