To Pause at the Threshold: Reflections on Living on the Border [Large Print] [Paperback]

Esther de Waal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2004

"A threshold is a sacred thing," goes the traditional saying of ancient wisdom. In some corners of the earth, in some traditional cultures, and in monastic life, this is still remembered. But in our fast-paced modern world, this wisdom is often lost on us. It is important for us to remember the significance of the threshold. While it is certainly true that thresholds mark the end of one thing and the beginning of another, they also act as borders-the places in between, the points of transition. These can be physical, such as the geographical borders of a country; others, such as the spiritual border between the inner and outer world-between ourselves and others-are intangible. In To Pause at the Threshold, Esther de Waal looks at what it is like to live in actual "border country," the Welsh countryside with its "slower rhythms" and "earth-linked textures," and explores the importance of opening up and being receptive to one's surroundings, whatever they may be.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this small but sophisticated book on change, self-discovery and spiritual longing, de Waal explores the liminal spaces that exist between one stage of life and another, or between geographic places. "I have become aware of the continual movement of crossing over thresholds into the new, while still of course being part of what is left behind," she writes. De Waal drinks from various wells of wisdom: from her own experiences of living on the border between England and Wales, from authors such as Graham Greene and Dylan Thomas, from the rhythms and traditions of the Celtic year. Spiritual borderlands, she concludes, can be frightening places, fraught as they are with the prospect of transformation. But they can also be sites where ideas are exchanged more freely, where we become aware of the constant motion of life in the Spirit. Beautifully written, de Waal’s brief meditation will appeal to anyone who is waiting expectantly on the threshold of something new.
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About the Author

Esther de Waal lives in Herefordshire, close to the border between England and Wales, having returned to the countryside where she grew up. She is the author of many books, including Living with Contradiction: An Introduction to Benedictine Spirituality and Every Earthly Blessing, both available from Morehouse Publishing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Morehouse Publishing; large type edition edition (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819219894
• ISBN-13: 978-0819219893
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #576,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > Large Print > Biographies & Memoirs

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another firmly grounded set of meditations from de Waal, August 6, 2005

By 

Nancy A. Mein - See all my reviews
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This review is from: To Pause at the Threshold: Reflections on Living on the Border (Paperback)

Deceptively slim, this book of meditations from de Waal's reading and personal experience asks for careful reading and cogitation. I found myself reading it aloud, softly and slowly, in order to take in the deep meaning. This is truly matter for Lectio Divina. A quotation: " If the borders are not frontiers, and if the thresholds are continually crossed and recrossed, then we open up to the new." Readers of de Waal will find familiar sources-- St Benedict, Celtic writings-- as well as fruits of de Waal's wide current reading. This book should become a spiritual classic.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To Pause at the Threshold, January 27, 2005

By 

Therese Elias (Kansas City, MO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: To Pause at the Threshold: Reflections on Living on the Border (Paperback)

Esther de Waal never lets us down! In To Pause at the Threshold she explores how even the busiest life can be lived mindfully and prayerfully. She attunes us to what the Celtic Christians called "thin" moments, those times when what is before gives way to the new, when God is experienced as most palpably present. Life is immeasurably blessed, she assures us, when we receive the next moment, the next event, the next person with reverence and expectation. This fine little book is a lovely companion for the one who lives life on pilgrimage.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Review by Paul Wallis author "Be Thou My Breastplate", January 8, 2009

By 

Paul Wallis "author 'Be Thou my Breastplate' ... - See all my reviews
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This review is from: To Pause at the Threshold: Reflections on Living on the Border (Paperback)

Esther de Waal's life has long been wrapped up in the geography and continuity of Celtic Christian heritage.

Many books have hinted at the relevance of "Celtic Christianity" to the needs of today's Christians, hungry for authentic forms of spirituality and authentic experiences of Christian community. To do so is as much an act of poetry as of information.

This little book by Esther de Waal is a poetic offering and, essentially, is highly personal. It is true to the spirit of our Celtic heritage and encapsulates important themes well enough to give the reader more than a little to think about on a rainy afternoon. read and pondered, Esther guides in a way that can engage us with our own lives more poetically and with reason enough even to change how we live. To my mind this makes "to pause at the threshold" an important book for any person hungry for a more authentic, spiritual, Christian and human pattern of life.

Paul Wallis OJG - author of "BE THOU MY BREASTPLATE - 40 days of giving your life to God the Celtic way!" (Continuum/Paulist) "This serene, superb...book is...a rich gift to the Church." Phyllis Tickle)