The Marginal Way

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Ogunquit, Maine.  The seacoast there is breathtaking, and my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our time there.  We were able to walk on a path situated right on the coastline called The Marginal Way.  It’s roughly one mile of paved path that follows a circuitous route winding along the rocky shore.  Visitors are able to leisurely walk while enjoying the scenery.  There are even benches placed strategically along the way so people can sit and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. 

I was curious how the path came to have its namesake.  One would think a pathway with such picturesque views would have a name more reflective of its surroundings such as “Path by the Sea” or “Steps of Serenity.”  The path is anything but marginal.  Though the word, margin, can mean that something is insignificant or of minor importance, it also means near the edge of something – like the margin on a piece of paper.  The path gets its name from the latter definition. 

The Marginal Way’s name could be translated “path along the edge of land and sea.”  Not a very dramatic name, but one that describes where it is and the course it follows.  This path that found room in the margin provides respite and beautiful scenery for all to travel there.  At the same time, the ocean and its effects on shorelines most likely encroaches on this space as well.  A fund has been set up to help maintain the margin where the path is located.  Preserving this space takes time and resources.  Leaving some space in the margin takes intentional time and resources.

Richard Swenson, in his book Margin:  Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, defines the word another way.  He describes it as “the space between the load we handle each day and our limits.”  He advocates that each of us develop “margin” in our lives.  In other words, he points out our tendency each and every day is to fill our lives full of activities and tasks without leaving any margin.  He writes, “we must have room to breathe.  We need freedom to think and permission to heal.  Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity.  No one has time to listen, let alone love.  Is God now pro-exhaustion?  Doesn’t He lead people beside the still waters anymore?  Who plundered those wide-open spaces of the past, and how can we get them back?  There are no fallow lands for our emotions to lie down and rest in.”

The margin which Swenson advocates could also be called simplicity – one of the spiritual values of the Xaverian Brothers.  Simplicity affects all of life, one’s entire style of being.  A person with an inner quality of simplicity keeps focus on God and does not determine where and how God should be.  A person possessing simplicity can respond to new calls from God and moves with God as God continues to be revealed in the contemporary reality (taken from https://www.xbss.org).

Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, in her book Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us, writes, “simplicity cultivates the great art of letting go. Simplicity aims at loosening inordinate attachment to owning and having. Simplicity brings freedom and with it generosity.” She sums up the goal of simplicity as: “to uncomplicate and untangle my life so I can focus on what really matters.”

If you are like me, finding margin in the midst of life’s responsibilities and tasks can prove to be challenging.  Our technology allows us to be connected to work, friends, and family 24 hours a day.  Margin does not come easy.  Just like The Marginal Way, it takes intentional time and resources to create the “path” in our lives that allows us to take time to see beyond what is in front of us.  There is always something that wants to fill our margin and it is very easy to allow it. 

Creating margin or embracing simplicity creates space in our lives.  It allows us to live in the moment without worrying about the mental task list we carry with us.  It means letting go of the tangle of wants and a deeper focus on those simple things which really matter – our faith, our relationships with others, and taking time to care for ourselves.  We put ourselves in a position to be able to listen to what life is telling us and how we can respond.  We can breathe easier and experience peace just like I did on The Marginal Way.

My prayer is we all learn how to better create margin in our lives.