I say this a lot, but I’ll say it again: I spend as much time (or more) in blog-land reading compared to writing. There is SO MUCH to learn about life, and I especially enjoy the material that falls outside typical migraine-me subjects.
BUT
I ALSO like it when I can see a synergy between “random” unrelated material and my health journey to find more joy (and hopefully less pain). I have for example posted about everything from Julies Caesar to dog training and the relationship between my pain-brain and Goldilocks (with her not-too-hot-not-too-cold porridge)…
As such, it was with great joy that I discovered a new word on James Viscosi’s “Viscosity” blog: ECOTONE.
James gives a brief description and movie-reference in his blog post you can read yourself… but I had to know more… because… there was a sense of deep resonance between the word and my life lived with an invisible (dis)ability…
An ecotone is the transitional space between two ecosystems; think about the rocky shoreline where the sea meets the land, the border between deserts and vegetated savannas, the estuaries where fresh-water and salt-water merge and combine, or mangroves where tree roots are often underwater and create shelter for fish as well as bugs.
The glory of ecotones is that the two ecosystems often interact in a way which creates a third, permeable, ecosystem that manages to be home to some (or all) of both adjacent ecosystems.
According to Wikipedia the word was coined by the botanist Frederic E. Clements in 1904 and contains it’s meaning; “eco” comes from ecology, and “tone” comes from the Greek word “tonos” meaning tension.
Ecotones can be a sharp line, or more of a blurry transition between the two ecologies. The demarcation can be relatively static, or fluid in shape and form and duration.
The tension that exists in these odd-lands can influence both the flora and fauna.
In a slight stretch of the terminology, our beloved Australian platypus (with its duck-bill and beaver-tail (and venomous toenails!)) is a potential example of just such an ecological oddity; a land-dwelling mammal that can swim under water, and as such, lives in the ecotone where aquatic and terrestrial ecologies meet.
Whilst looking for a video to help explain ecotones, I came across one which introduces a space in Ontario, Canada they refer to as “The Land Between” (4 mins):
[File source: What’s An Ecotone? | The Land Between]
This notion of a “between” place felt intuitively very powerful to me.
I’ve blogged before about how I feel like chronic migraine has led to a dual-life (here) where I’m part Dr Jekyll (conscientious researcher) part Mr Hyde (bent-backed creature that rarely strays from the shadows). I’ve also written about life lived in the “orangey-brown-zone” (here) that exist between green and red; illness and wellness. More recently, I spoke about how people living with chronic pain can be simultaneously both able and disabled (here).
I now see that there is a theme running through many of my posts – a tension that exists between a life lived partly well, partly ill.
[And for those of you who live with more pain-days than not – I get that this post might seem almost boastful given that it’s written by someone who’s mostly well, but it’s not; I’ve lived what felt like a lifetime almost completely confined to bed due to almost daily migraines… hang in there and know that I’m sending love and understanding your way.]
What I want this new (to me) term of ‘ecotone’ to do, is to give you comfort that nature is filled with these liminal, transitional, tidal, variable, grey (but oh so colorful) zones – you are not alone – you are not broken – you are not abnormal.
Having good days and bad, comfortable hours wedged beside unbearable pain, a life lived with agony AND joy… it’s not impossible; it’s REAL.
And, excitingly… it offers a unique opportunity too – just as in nature, these ecotones thrive off the tension, they create new habitats for amazing new creatures – so too, we can see an opportunity for ourselves.
A life lived in flux can be powerful.
Intensely creative too.
We can be a little bit of both versions of our illness-wellness spectrum, or something entirely new.
I don’t really know how to articulate what this ill-well model of us in the ecotone might look like, but…
Yay us!
In a life filled with predictable “normies” be quirky, be adaptable, be you-nique… unless you can be a platypus… then absolutely, be a platypus!
[Image source: Adopt a Platypus – WWF Australia]
Take care taking care, transformationally, Linda xox
The Mindful Migraine 
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