A Woman Walks Through It

Pondering the meaning and significance of doors

It’s interesting that the first part of the definition includes “barrier”, and the second part contains “opportunity”.

The physical and metaphysical doors in our lives are both of these things — barriers, in my case often self-imposed, to some sort of next phase or level; and opportunities, representing what we might achieve or experience if we allowed ourselves to pass through them.

It might be the gateway to a new home, a new school, a new job. A new watering hole or coffee shop, therapist’s office or friend’s house.

Sometimes a door leads us into a space; sometimes it prevents us from entering one.

What physical doors will we open today?

It might allow us to face extreme fears (like skydiving — leaving the door of that airplane even though every fiber of our being is screaming at us to stay inside the damn plane).

Or it might signify a more subtle obstacle — picking up the phone to make a call we’ve been dreading; uttering words we’ve been afraid to say to a loved one. Can we transform a relationship by taking the step through that door?

Transitioning to a new perspective is another kind of door. Mental patterns are deeply ingrained, and shifting to a different way of thinking about something is difficult to do.

It can also be incredibly liberating.

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