February 18th - Walking between worlds
How do we honor both the Colecanth and the code-maker within us?
Straddling between wooden branch and ancient stone I reflect on a deeper truth about our human journey.
I chose this photo from last February because, since this, this tree (growing at the bottom of Jean Jeanie on Trowbarrow Quarry) has been cut down. It’s probably for the best! It was blocking access to the climb, and (as maybe you can see in this photo) it allowed for a certain amount of advatage on the climb. In this photo you can see that I’m straddling two worlds - the modern, wooden world, and the ancient fossilized world. This is a moment caught in time - I can return there - but I can’t straddle those worlds again.
The Celtic Christians spoke of "thin places" where the veil between worlds grows transparent. Perhaps we ourselves are thin places – each human heart a doorway where the sacred and ordinary meet and mingle. We carry this dual citizenship in our very nature: breathing divine breath through lungs made of clay, holding infinity in finite frames.
We are all world-walkers. Every day, we wake from mysterious dreams full of ancient spirits while rattle through our brains. We were designed to eat berries in a cave, and we drag our Coelacanth bodies out of the primordial sea of sleep, into a world where we have to navigate traffic lights, cryptofascism, 24 hour news, dividends, and tax forms. Then we retreat back into our cave, sinking back into the world of mysteries as we sleep again.
Jesus himself embodied this dance between worlds. Fully human, he knew hunger and fatigue, joy and pain. He showed us that living between worlds isn't a flaw in our design but integral to our purpose – to be translators, channels through which heaven's love flows into earth's wounds.
This path isn't always comfortable. Sometimes we feel like strangers everywhere, too mystical for the marketplace, too earthbound for pure spirit. Yet this is precisely where we're meant to be – not fully at home in either world because our task is to be bridges between them, translators of grace into ordinary life.
Reflection
Where do you find yourself walking between worlds in your own life? What gifts does this perspective bring? What challenges? How might you serve as a bridge between different realms of experience?
Prayer
God of all realms, seen and unseen, guide us as we walk these in-between paths. Give us wisdom to read the signs in both worlds, courage to stand in the tensions, and grace to serve as bridges where heaven and earth meet. Help us remember that Jesus too walked this path, showing us how to be fully present to both divine and human realities.
An ecological note: I’m seen toproping in this photo. This is discouraged because of the fossils on this wall, which migfht get damaged if you drag your feet accross them. You can see the fossilized ridges in the bottom of this photo. We always remove our rock shoes when rapelling or doing an active lower in Trowbarrow, for this reason.