Twilight Zone
In the past weeks I have heard a variety of metaphors to describe these times. What’s your metaphor? I keep hearing the term twilight zone, and I agree. Twilight is an in-between place, a liminal space. But from where does the expression come? It’s more than an old TV show that imagined a world in the space between fantasy and reality. It’s an aeronautical term used to describe the condition of a pilot trying to land a plane without being able to see the horizon. It occurs at twilight when land and sky can become indistinguishable, and it is easy to become disoriented. A pilot must be able to function not by sight, but by “instruments only”. She has to trust in the system’s data in the cockpit to guide the plane safely home.
As we navigate the twilight zone of this global pandemic, the horizon is unseen. For many, life has gotten smaller as lives are lived inside our homes. We are figuring out how to navigate from here, and we are discovering what shape our inner systems are in. St. Francis’ prayer rises in me, and I pray it for all of us: Lord, make us instruments of your peace now.
I have never piloted in a twilight zone before. I am noticing instruments only requires unique concentration, vigilant attention. It means trusting my inner resources. Taking care of my interior life is needed more than ever if I am to be an instrument of peace, and to know what is mine to do. Finally, I want to be gentle with myself and others as these efforts can be exhausting. Regular rest is needed. I am thankful for the Zoom Zones that have allowed spiritual practices to continue and deepen while providing the needed spiritual companionship for the journey, and the calming presence of routine in the absence of the old order.
I, like many others, have invited an old spiritual companion on this journey. Born in 1342, Julian of Norwich would be 678 years old. She has been in my heart these days because this English mystic and spiritual director knew something of the twilight zone. Born into a dark period in human history, Julian survived two plagues, the first of which took the lives of two thirds of the population of her town of Norwich in one year. And yet, out of that landscape, her heart gave us some of the most comforting and strengthening verses known to the spiritual community:
All shall be well,
and all manner of thing shall be well.
Her witness is serving us still. While all around her was in peril, and she had no horizon in her sights, she listened for God within, and became an instrument of God’s deep peace.
“If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love. He did not say: "You shall not be tempest-tossed". He did not say you shall not be work weary. He did not say you shall not have disease. He said, "You shall not be overcome.”
-Julian of Norwich
It was not by sight she navigated. It was by instrument only.
Lord, make us instruments of your peace this day.
Blessings for the Journey,
Elizabeth+
