My spouse married a young couple this weekend. In his sermon, he used the metaphor of “crossing the aisle”. Seems this couple had sat on opposite sides of the church until one day, the young man decided to switch sides and move towards the young woman. This crossing led to the eventual commitment of these two people to share their lives together in a profound and intimate way.
The image of “crossing the aisle” has stayed with me as I notice how often I tend to sit in the same chair, on the same side of my life. But to grow, we need to move. We need to cross the aisle into new perspectives, into the unfamiliar, into what seems scary, into what seems too unworthy or too magnificent.
We are beings created with infinite possibilities to explore and expand ourselves. And each effort at expansion begins with a simple crossing of the aisle, in whatever circumstance we find ourselves.