threshold guardian | The Direction of Intention

Metal Monster Box [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on October 29, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

In every great story there are trials to be faced, especially at the thresholds. A Sphynx with a riddle. An ogre with an attitude. St. Peter with a book. Boulders that smash. Forests that come alive. Guardians of the great beyond. I thought about the trials as we crawled for hours through traffic toward the George Washington Bridge. New York did not grant us easy passage home.

The riddle must be solved. The ogre defeated. A reckoning must be made. The trials on the journey provide valuable lessons and useful tools necessary to fulfill the hero or heroine’s destiny. She plucks a single hair from the breast of the Crescent Moon Bear. It is the secret ingredient necessary to cure her husband. He enters the Grail Castle for the second time, this time with no need to pretend. They are both transformed.

The two people who drove into the city, straight into winds and sheets of rain from a tropical storm, were not the same two people who left the city. They met this trial but the story is far from over. The destiny is not yet met.

Surrounded by giant metal monsters, trapped on all sides as we followed the asphalt trail, there was no escape. There was only one way and that was through it. Ours was a lesson in patience. Ours was a lesson in presence. We-are-here-so-enjoy-this-moment. The metal monster box reinforced tools that we already possessed but too often ignore.

Enjoy this day. Appreciate this moment. Faster forward movement cannot be forced. There’s nothing gained in the metal monster box of frustration. I know patience will come in handy in the next section of our journey.

The Balinese have a phrase I’ve long appreciated: Jom Karet: it will happen when it happens.

read Kerri’s blogpost about MONSTER TRUCKS! (TRUCK MONSTERS!)

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Metaphor, Transcendence | Tagged: appreciation, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lessons, patience, presence, story, studio melange, the melange, threshold, threshold guardian, trials | 1 Comment »

Giggle Across The Threshold [on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on June 28, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

This one acted like a threshold guardian. Usually, when we come upon snakes on the trail, they want nothing to do with us and quickly slither away. This one, stretched across the trail, soaking up the sun, sensed our presence, and rather than escape, coiled into a defensive posture. “You shall not pass!” I almost expected it to hiss a riddle in our general direction. Ready to eat us if we failed to answer correctly.

It was a garter snake. Much smaller than this picture portrays. Not poisonous. All bark and no bite. Like a little chihuahua that imagines itself alpha to a german shepherd, this snake had much more attitude than body. It was serious.

I imagine there are few things more humiliating for a threshold guardian than for a sock-and-sandaled tourist to completely miss its ominous threat and enthusiastically take a picture of it. ‘Lookit!” Kerri smiled, knelt and began snapping photos. The snake flexed its machismo and Kerri giggled, “Why do you think he’s doing that?” The snake doubled-down. Kerri’s delight escalated.

It was like watching a Monty Python movie. Threshold humiliation. I imagined The Sphinx encountering a couple of Wisconsin tourists clad in khaki cargo shorts who guffaw at her scary posture, her incomprehensible riddle. They put their arms around her, ask her to pose for a nice selfie. “Smile!” they chime, two thumbs up to the camera. They invite her to a hot-dish dinner.

The Sphinx lets them pass and hopes no one was watching.

And so it was with the snake and Kerri. The more threatening it became, the more laughter it invoked in her. The more photos she took.

We moved on. Thrilled, she showed me her snake series. I couldn’t bear to look back and watch the mortified snake slither into the grass, deflated.

[I stop here. It is too tempting to suggest this an effective strategy for dealing with all the puffed up political snakes and slithering pundits on our trail. So I won’t do it. I won’t suggest it. I’ll keep it to myself. Really.]

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SNAKE

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Random | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, garter snake, guardian, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Monty Python, snake, Sphinx, story, studio melange, the melange, threshold guardian | 5 Comments »

Sing It Into Existence [on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 8, 2021 by davidrobinsoncreative

Lately I am awake for the sunrise. I know it is coming because, very slowly, the birds begin to sing. At first there is one voice, then a few more and then more. By the time the light through the window glows soft purple and gray, the full bird chorus is in session. They sing the sun into rising.

Although I didn’t recognize it at the time, these lawn-art-birds would come to represent to me threshold guardians. Harbingers of the test that my move to Wisconsin would bring. In story terms, threshold guardians are not friendly; they serve as the test of readiness: are you willing and able to greet the challenges that come with change. Or will you run away? Sometimes they are monsters. Sometimes they require the answer to a riddle or solving a puzzle. The new world will open after the obstacle is met. In facing and overcoming the challenge, the guardians often become allies. In truth, they are allies all along. They help you find your self by testing every idea that you have of your self.

Driving the Budget truck on my move from Seattle, filled with the artifacts of my life, Kerri and I stopped in a little village, Stockholm, just as we crossed the Mississippi River into Wisconsin. We wandered down the street and into a gallery. We were drawn to these simple bird-sculptures. They are the first thing we bought together. They represented our step into relationship. Us. They would stand together in our yard.

My first few years in Kenosha were akin to being lost in the woods. My livelihood disappeared. My networks disappeared. Art opportunities vanished. Many of my friendships faded. Every project I tried to pitch or create stalled, every path I attempted to plow broke the plow. I felt stripped. Of little or no value. Even in arenas where I was once appreciated, I was invisible. I’ve done extraordinary consulting work in organizations but learned in my new life that my experience and observations were not welcome. So, silent as well as invisible.

More than once I went out back and sat with the sculptures. They remained silent when I asked of them my questions. Who am I now that I have no useful purpose? What do I do now? In the absence of an answer, the sculptures and I listened to the birdsong.

Often the test brought by the threshold guardians is one of letting go. You cannot become a butterfly if you insist on remaining a caterpillar. The armor must fall. The known shape must go to mush. The what-the-hell-is-happening-to-me necessarily falls unanswered into the void. What’s happening is not complex: you are changing. The old stuff isn’t working because it is too small for the new shape. Let go.

It is not complex but it is uncomfortable. Dark night is cold when you’ve shed your skin. The sun will rise. The birds will sing it into existence. Warmth will return in the moments beyond the soft purples and greys.

We recently moved the bird sculptures from their spot by the pond to a new home by the fence. I hadn’t realized how invisible they were when standing over the pond. By they fence, they are glorious! They are also a metaphor, standing tall, made more vibrant and dynamic by their incorporated shadows. They are transformed. They are present, standing together in the yard. They are signaling the path to the new world, singing into existence the new day.

read Kerri’s blog post about THE BIRDS