Doors by Steven Lacey

What is a door?

A door can be anything we want it to be.

There are the realms of the actual – a physical entrance, exit or barrier between geographic objects: inside and outside; inner sanctum and outer society; closed and triple-locked or thrown open to the world.

These are the doors that are manifested in the physical world. They inform us where we can and cannot go, what is private and/or public - our bedroom, our office, our house, car, country club, garden shed. Or the bedroom, office, house, car, country club or garden shed of not-us.

Then, there is the land of the mental and spiritual: doors we may not be able to see, may not be able to touch, may not always comprehend, but that exist independent of our physical plane.

These doors of perception swing open and shut. Our understanding of the universe as well as our relationship with some higher spiritual power can shift with an alteration of the perceived. Indeed, our understandings and our relationships often change in an instant.

The mental and spiritual doors reveal something to us about ourselves, often at a critical juncture in our lives. Sometimes that can happen right before breakfast.

It is forward travel through these doors that allow us to re-define personal boundaries of time or age, shaping our personas and personalities, molding our likes and dislikes.

The step forward can be small – enjoying or despising a 15-second radio spot, or giant – suddenly recognizing that a particular external group embodies our core beliefs, and shaping our life around that association.

Finally, there comes the citadel of emotion, whose doors can be kept open indefinitely - or closed for good.

There are the passageways of love, the doors through which the bells and whistles of experience will pass, where that first glance, first touch, first kiss will sear itself straight into our cerebral cortex, to burn like the eternal flame for the rest of our days.

The doors of emotion define the byways of hate as well - when one moment can form an indelible image and frame an entire lifetime of scorn and distaste.

The doors of the mental, spiritual and emotional, are the passages through which we connect with the universal, where our intuition, instinct, and basic gut feelings give us awarenesses that the world of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch never could.

In fact, this gospel of memory can sustain us, feed us, keep us warm – all we need do is close our eyes and let our minds walk us through these doors.

The three properties of physical, mental and spiritual, and emotional can each contain many doors - and separately, have an impact on us in varying degrees. When all three properties come together, intersect and intertwine – those are the moments when physical doors become instantly recognizable as notable life passages.

Simple, like our first movie, concert, date, professional sporting event, or momentous, like walking into our school on graduation day; the first entry into the home we're going to share with our partner; through the swinging doors of the hospital for the birth of our child; the massive door of the funeral home for the last goodbye to our loved one.

In this light, even the boring and mundane can become the miraculous.

Simply put one foot in front of another, and we can step through a door into a whole different plane of experience.

The best part of this? It can happen every single day, whenever we would like, so long as we remember the question - and the answer.

What is a door?

A door can be anything we want it to be.