Field Notes From A Chaplain: Sacred Thresholds

Recently, a thought occurred to me as I was finishing a visit with someone navigating a serious health challenge. Later that day, I was preparing for a conversation with a couple I am marrying and something clicked.

I am drawn to the thresholds of life.

From the thresholds of social change and justice work, to the thresholds of weddings and marriage, to the thresholds of illness, trauma, and loss that I have accompanied in hospitals, my life’s work has always been about walking with people through times of transition and transformation.

Last summer, I launched Aurelia Grove, a new practice of spiritual care. Over the past year, the Grove has expanded into new offerings and become a doorway into deeper engagement with life’s thresholds.

Some thresholds are joyful. Others are terrifying. Most arrive carrying a complex web of emotions, questions, and possibilities.

There are so many thresholds in a lifetime.

A couple weaving their lives together through marriage.

A young mother receiving a diagnosis of advanced cancer.

A healthcare worker realizing that what they carry is not simply burnout, but something deeper.

An elder reflecting on the meaning of their life and their legacy.

An activist struggling to remain connected to hope.

What is emerging at these thresholds?

Over the past few years, I have also been exploring more deeply the in-between spaces that I embody as a non-binary Irish American person of mixed ancestry. Part of that journey has included studying Irish, the indigenous language of many of my ancestors.

Recently, I learned the word idirthréimhse (pronounced “idi-heeh-sheh”). It is often translated as “an in-between time” - the space between what has been and what is becoming.

A threshold may be crossed in an instant. The changes that follow often unfold over months or years.

These seasons often bring uncertainty, grief, growth, reorientation, and change. They can also reveal unexpected wisdom, new capacities, and connection.

It is in these in-between times that spiritual companionship can matter most.

All of the work I do is rooted in a deep love of people. I am endlessly in awe of the ways we make meaning in the face of suffering, hold contradictions, and remain capable of connection and repair even in times of great instability and profound change.

And as always, if you know someone who could benefit from this support, I hope you’ll share my website. Word of mouth remains the primary way people find their way to the Grove.

If you’re interested in following along with my writing and public offerings, I also invite you to visit HerbalChaplain.com

I’m reimagining that site as a home for writing and reflection. A place to explore how people and communities navigate change, loss, illness, belonging, and becoming.

I believe we are living through a collective idirthréimhse—a painful and sacred in-between time.

At HerbalChaplain.com, I am exploring how we navigate both the individual thresholds of a life and this larger collective passage with meaning, care, connection, and repair.

And when we lose our way, how do we return?

I hope you'll walk with me.