Liminal Space – Creativity Spark

It is when we are betwixt and between, have left one room but not yet entered the next room, any hiatus between stages of life, faith, jobs, loves, or relationships. – Richard Rohr

An In-Between Space

Has your muse been hiding under a rock lately? Tap into liminal space for an amazing creativity spark. This spring I learned a liminal space can teach us about creative powers. It happened when I was leaving a friend’s 5th floor hospital room at midnight finding my way to the parking lot. The elevator doors opened to a dim light with shadowy figures. Triangular patches of brain-grey carpet, a partial ceiling fixture and large looming rectangles like a line of diminishing dominoes stood jagged in front of me. A pause and then an overwhelming sense of confusion arose and the emergence of what was being experienced became clear: No staff, no patients, all the doors shut. The bones of an empty hospital floor.

Initially there was not cognition. Only later after reflecting I realized it as a liminal space, an in-between space that signals a change and a feeling of being transported. A liminal space is often described as a portal that momentarily ushers a person from a place to another world. Yes, it can be unnerving, but also magical. According to Rakel’ Elizabeth Sampson, those who bring awareness to the transitional space “find value and re-enchantment.”

For All Creatives
Writers and artists use this spark of creativity to awaken, be lifted and create. Such places transport by creating a pause for one to reconsider time and place. Meaningful perspectives and new mindsets are its offspring. Following the hospital experience a poem called “Abandonment” was forged. My friend Sarah sanctified the value of liminal space when her father was in an in-between place in hospice. She noticed that fresh flowers were delivered daily to the care facility and often wilted before they were used. Sarah said she recognized the liminal space as the spark for creativity. Sarah and her father got to work arranging flowers in vases and delivered weekly bouquets to the hospice roommates.

The Latin meaning of a liminal space is threshold, a portal to another space. Sometimes, it can be experienced in physical spaces like following a heavy snowstorm when the world becomes quiet and silence thick, a long winding staircase, the spirits of a vacant home. Composers use this portal to spark creativity in their compositions by freshening a song or adding delight.

In-between space occurs in the emotional realm, too, following a change in jobs, a memorable graduation or re-locating to a new city. Death and divorce. In-between space is not an easy place to live. It’s full of questions and both/ands-not the kind of clarity we all seek. But by creatively capitalizing, maybe relaxing into this mysterious force field, the beginning to questioning the status quo and fixed routines of our lives becomes real. The artist finds new space to begin.

Remember “A beginning is ultimately an invitation to open the gifts and growth that are stored up for us,” said John O’Donahue. And sometimes when we find ourselves in the middle of liminal space, we have to tell ourselves not only are we all right, we can-with openness-dream ourselves into making something beautiful. – Becky Breed

Writing and creative exercise:
1. Listen to Haydn”s String Quartet in E-flat, Op. 33, No. 2 “The Joke” Finale Liminal Space – Spark CreativityWere you moved when you listened and heard the pauses? Did you find yourself suspended in new space? Listen again.
2. Experiencing in-between spaces often happens when we’re out of routine. Take a drive or walk away from your usual haunts. Be open to changes in your senses, lingering smells, non-resonant sounds, people and places that are not part of your daily community. Enjoy these encounters as a launching pad for your creativity.
3. Movies can transport us. Select films outside your comfort range or interest. For me, sci-fi, fantasy or horror movies are mine. Step into one of the movie characters’ lives and create a scene or conversation between you and the protagonist. Where does this creatively take you?
4. Are you leaving one stage of life or career for another? Moving to another city, recovering from a health scare, becoming a grandfather? Create a poem or something with your hands that you will cherish acknowledging it’s a beginning. – Becky Breed

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