THRESHOLD

A threshold is more than a doorway.

It is the line that separates before from after. Once crossed, you cannot go back to the person you were, because you’ve seen something, felt something, or understood something that refuses to be unseen, unfelt, or unknown.

Astronauts speak of the Overview Effect, the moment they first see Earth suspended in the blackness of space. From that vantage point, our borders vanish, our divisions seem absurd, and the fragility of our home becomes painfully clear. It is a profound psychological shift, once experienced, there’s no return. That’s crossing a threshold.

In our everyday lives, thresholds can be quieter but just as irreversible: a deep conversation that reframes your worldview, witnessing an act of pure kindness that restores your faith in people, realizing, deep in your bones that your purpose is larger than yourself.

We live in a time where distraction is the default. Our attention is scattered, fractured by a thousand pings and feeds, while our connection to each other thins. Artificial intelligence is accelerating this flood of noise, sometimes helping us, often replacing the very human textures that make life meaningful.

The antidote isn’t to run from technology, but to hold fast to what is irreplaceably human: purpose, empathy, the quiet presence of another person truly listening to you. To create spaces and moments that strip away the noise until what’s left is the raw, unfiltered connection that reminds us why we’re here at all.

To cross that threshold is to choose, deliberately, is to live with your eyes open, your heart engaged, and your purpose clear.

Because once you’ve truly seen, you can’t unsee. And maybe that’s the point.

—
Words: Eduardo Castillo
Eduardo's Substack

Have a look at Astronaut Ron Garan’s THRESHOLD story.