As one year turns into the next, Ann Tashi Slater sees our shared state of liminality as an opportunity to change our perspective. She describes this condition of being “in between” as a natural and fertile state, visible in moments like dawn before sunrise or a flower poised between bud and bloom. These transitions, she suggests, open us to new ways of seeing.

Slater points to the experience of travel as a vivid example. When Georgia O’Keeffe wrote about the strange, dreamlike landscapes she saw from an airplane window, that altered vantage point led her toward new, more abstract artistic directions. The “between” created not just distance, but possibility.

In Tibetan Buddhism, such in-between states are called bardos—intervals when awareness sharpens and transformation becomes possible. The passage from one year to the next is one such bardo, a threshold moment rich with insight. The Tibetan Book of the Dead teaches that during these states the mind becomes unusually clear and receptive, capable of being reshaped.

Slater frames this end-of-year bardo as a kind of retreat, or “entering the cave.” In Buddhist tradition, caves are places of simplicity and focus where deep shifts can occur. She recalls stories of great teachers—monks, sages, and even the Buddha—who withdrew into caves to gain clarity and power.

We need not disappear into the mountains to do the same. Slater invites us to treat this seasonal threshold as a time to pause and reflect on our roles, relationships, and aspirations. Even brief moments of quiet—a walk, a corner of a room, a few mindful minutes amid holiday busyness—can serve as our cave.

"This year, as we say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, let’s put aside our usual ways of seeing. Let’s allow the seen to give way to the unseen as we travel the mountains and rivers and galaxies of the world within. The discoveries we make can awaken and delight us, helping us to reset our compass and start afresh with the new year."

‍‍ARTICLE: ‘Tis the Season to Open Yourself to New Ways of Seeing