Lexical Gap No. 24: Gula

Liminal spaces, or the in-between places

Between sea and sky

Here, there, everywhere—I just assume you're in-between places all the time, my friend Canada said to me last year. In fairness, I seemed to be traveling more often than not, so pinning me down to a concrete time and place for a social gathering was probably pretty tough.

But perhaps he was more right than he knew.

I live in the in-between places.

As we turn the corner from 2018 and into 2019, we tend to reflect on the year we've had, as well as look forward to the year ahead. January. In ancient Rome, Janus was the god of beginnings, beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. Traditionally thought to be the deity after whom the first month of the year was named,¹ I like to think of Janus as the god of liminal spaces—the in-between places, the time spent in uncounted hours, thresholds.

I love liminal spaces.

I spent a lot of 2018 in the liminal spaces, sometimes figuratively, ofttimes literally. I traveled quite a bit and settle…