Noticing In-Between Spaces and Connections

Making Visible What's Hidden in Plain Sight

Jul 30, 2024

A graphic mapping of my summer so far and the places I have been. I used the flowing lines of the marbled paper to imagine creativity and connections.

You may have noticed my newsletter has been a bit less frequent during the summer months. I will return to writing twice a month in September. For summer, I have been leaning into a slower rhythm.

Summer always feels like an in-between space but maybe more so this year with many transitions for our family. I’m leaning in to welcoming the change in schedule rather than see it as a disruption.

Last week, I read an article in Orion Magazine about a newly discovered part of our bodies. It is the layer of fluid and tissue that surrounds all our other organs and connects throughout our bodies. This obviously isn’t new but scientists are newly aware of it. And, it turns out, it’s been visible all along, it was just that it wasn’t seen or given attention as the focus was on the individual organs and their functions.

We now have a shared language, or at least a word, for this system — or this organ, or this infrastructure (depending on whom you ask) — that’s been revealed as a fluid-filled superhighway spanning the entire body. It’s called: the interstitium.

-Jennifer Brandel, “Invisible Landscapes,” Orion Magazine

You can hear more about the story of the interstitium on this Radio Lab Podcast or in this article by Jennifer Brandel for Orion Magazine, “Invisible Landscapes.”

Jennifer Brandel is most inspired by the way that this discovery provides a metaphor for people working in the in-between spaces, those who are creating and maintaining connections and attending to the health of the whole through fostering connections.

Just as scientists can now see the interstitium everywhere they look, I see these people everywhere who are bridging, connecting and serving as conduits, keeping systems in communication, operable, healthy. -Jennifer Brandel

Brandel draws beautiful parallels between the often unseen but vital work of building connections between organizations, systems, and areas of study and the new discovery of the interstitium. I see the role of creativity and the way creativity and connection flow through the metaphorical interstitium between and among people and organizations.

Like the interstitium organ that is newly discovered but also visible to the naked eye, part of what we know and see is based on our frame of reference, what we expect to see, and believe is possible. The interstitium was visible but not noticed.

As I think about relationships with creativity, I think of all the small creative acts that are often overlooked but are also vital to connection and care between individuals, organizations and systems in our living world.

We engage with our creativity when we choose our clothes for the day, when we prepare a meal, when we create connection through greeting a neighbor, when we share music we love, a book we read, or a photo of a summer adventure. All these things are about creativity and connection.

It’s all about that third thing that envelops the spaces between any two nodes: the relationship, the dynamic, the warm data and the energy that animates their movement, direction, and leaves everything changed through the very act of connection. -Jennifer Brandel

This week I am thinking about creativity as part of this interstitium that connects and animates and energizes the in-between space, they are spaces vital to connection.

As I lean into the in-between space of summer, I am also leaning into the value of this time away from typical routine but still rich with connection and creativity.

I’d love to hear from you too, does this idea of an interstitium, of seeing once invisible connections and creativity in the everyday ring true for you?

Where might you see creativity and connection you might have overlooked before?

How does noticing creativity and connection help it to feel more abundant in our lives?