The Moments in Between I

🌤️ The Moment Before

Have you ever found yourself caught in the in-between. No, not the upside-down. I mean you come out of a trance of sorts and you’re just planted, staring at nothing? And for a moment, you’re perched on the cusp of something, but in that moment – there is nothing. I’ve found that these fleeting moments can often reveal deeper meanings in the chaos of life. WE flash past them and perhaps miss the chance to ‘do it right’.

The image below tells the story of the Pandemic quite perfectly, if you knew this spot. This is at Shadow Cliffs Regional Park. This spot is a favorite of dog-walkers in the area. First, the trail there is an off-leash trail (here the pups yell, “YAY”). Second, there’s this pond with the wooden bench that normally would have several folks sitting while their dogs enjoyed a dip. Then the pandemic hit. I still took the dogs there and while it was quiet, it was eerily empty – atypical of the ‘moment’, no one was there. They were in the in-between moment.

It may be a function of age, and I’ve just forgotten what I got up for, but I really do pay attention now, as I’ve experienced this moment before without understanding what it was. Now I want to know what’s going on always. Finding this image in my scan this morning triggered this effort. I had CoPilot find some references for me. I read what was given me and wrote this piece. What triggered the concept was the image below – ‘A pandemic Bench full‘.

Now, I don’t know if you know what “liminal” photography is, but sorting through my collection, it came to me that I’ve very rarely look to that genre in my works. I’ve made some Liminal images, but just a few compared to my normal work. If you think about it, though, liminal photography falls perfectly into this topic, doesn’t it?

Liminal Photography

Back to the ‘moments’ – I think if we embrace these moments, the gathered clarity can transform our perception of reality. What’s more, I feel it could change the reactions we often knee-jerk into the chaos. We could instead, take that pause to sort it all out logically and objectively, first, then seize the moment! These fleeting moments can often reveal deeper meanings in the chaos of life…if we truly try to analyze the moment first.

Do you know what I mean? There’s a particular kind of stillness that lives in the moments before something shifts inside us. It’s not usually very dramatic. It’s rarely visible to anyone else unless you’re looking for it. It’s the quiet inhale before a decision, the pause before opening a door, the subtle tilt of the body when someone is gathering themselves up to move. These moments are small, almost fragile, but they carry a weight that’s easy to overlook.

For me they’re the hinge points of the day. The places where I’m kind of suspended between what has been and what’s next. (These days, I often get stuck there for a while until Donna comes along and gives me a kick in the pants.) 😖

For the longest time, I rushed right past them, as life pulled me forward. I followed without noticing the transitions. Since then, I found that if I slow down long enough, I can recognize these thresholds and make better decisions – hopefully. They’re not empty spaces, per se. They’re full of intention, uncertainty, memory, and hope. They’re the places where I’m most human. They reveal the quiet negotiations I make with myself before stepping off into the next thing. I suggest that those moments, the in-between, is what determines our path’s chances of success. Right? If we think about it first, whatever ‘it’ is, we can probably make it turn out better.

This series is an exploration of that space, the moment before movement, clarity, and change. I’m not talking about the action itself. I mean the anticipation of it. It’s like a subtle emotional storm that gathers inside us when we’re on the edge of doing something, even if that “something” is as simple as standing up from a chair or turning toward a window. These are the moments that are rarely photographed, yet they shape the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and where we’re going.

I’m drawn to these thresholds now because they’re honest. They don’t perform. They don’t announce themselves. They’re the quiet truth beneath the surface of our days. And in a world that moves quickly, sometimes too quickly, there’s value in pausing long enough to notice the internal shift in light, the hesitation in a gesture, the breath that catches for no reason other than the body sensing change. I venture that if you read this, you’re going to start thinking about it a little and you may notice that moment in someone else, instead of yourself.

I mention that because I thought I saw it in Donna on the porch earlier, and I asked, ‘What are you thinking about, Hon?’

”Shush Michael. Oh hell! Now you made me forget what I was doing.”

Yeah, so you might want to leave those observations off the agenda. At least we shouldn’t verbalize them – just in case. 🤫 That will be a good exercise for the day. See if you can stop yourself from committing Hari-Kari and stick with observing your own self.

Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing a series of thoughts and images that sit inside this idea. Each one captures a different kind of “before” – before a step, a choice, or just a realization. Some are literal. Some are emotional. All are invitations to slow down and pay attention to the subtle transitions that shape our lives.

As Walter Hagen said, Stop and Smell the Roses

Think of this as a doorway into the series. A place to settle in before the story begins. Tomorrow, the first moment arrives, the first threshold, the first held breath. For now, this is the pause before the pause ends. The ‘moment’.

The next article in the series: The Moments in Between II

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Explore the Archive

If you’re new here, this is the best way to explore the journey so far. Just click on an underlined link.

• Photo Showroom (for sale items by genre)
• My Blog Posts in reverse chronological order

To read any of the writing listed blow press a purple button.

• Pups & Ponies – fiction book – in progress
• Doh-Rey-Me Book 1 – fiction book – written here
• Doh-Rey-Me Book 2 – fiction book – written here
• K9LTW Book 1 – fiction book – written here
• K9LTW Book 2 – fiction book – written here
• Mystery of Willow Woods – fiction short Story – written here
• The Last Signal – fiction book – written here
• Rift Guardians – fiction book – written here
• Burtt the Blade – fiction book – for sale
• Shorty’s Path – auto biography – for sale

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NOTE: All photos are Mine, from the Public Domain, or AI Generated from my prompts. I’ll usually let you know which is which. Sometimes I forget.