Refolding the Map
And finding the new lines
Are you old enough to remember those paper maps that folded into a neat rectangle? Perhaps it’s more appropriate to say that they started off as a neat rectangle and sometimes refolded back into that shape neatly. More of the time the map ended up kind of thick and poofy because it was just too hard to figure out how all the folds lined up, and we gave up and shoved it in the glove box (By the way, who among us has driving gloves these days?)
My life is in a season of refolding, recalibrating, renewal, remaking, redemption (lots of R words but also words like liminality, now-and-not-yet, between-ness, dormancy, germination).
I could use a number of metaphors for it:
I see seeds of what will be, and I am waiting and watching as the sun and the rain do their duty.
I am getting refitted and spruced up mid-voyage, a sailboat in the harbor tugging at the anchor, not wanting to stay in those confines any longer than is necessary but appreciating the energy spent on being ready to travel well.
Aware that I wouldn’t want anything extraneous to limit who I am meant to be, I am submitting to what I understand as the chisel of a master sculptor, knocking off anything that mars the image He has in mind.
Knowing that gorgeous photographs can’t develop anywhere but in the dark, (most days) I don’t mind the lack of more light; it would be premature.
Obviously I could go on an on and talk about rivers forcing their way through canyons, iron being forged in heat, butterflies needing to bust out of cocoons…and all sorts of processes of growth.
But I am here to talk about map folding, unfolding and refolding.
