In this year of change, we stand at both personal and collective thresholds. A threshold implies crossing into new territory. It is more than a transition–it is deeper. We have some obvious thresholds, such as our birth and death, and the significant passages in between. We also have the unseen spiritual thresholds, the times when we are guided into unknown territory and deep authenticity. Irish poet and priest John O’Donohue teaches that the word threshold comes from the word thresh: “To cross a threshold is to leave behind the husk and arrive at the grain.” As Meister Eckhart taught: “If you want the kernel, you must break the shell.”