A Time to be in the Middle

As the middle child I often find myself in the middle. I have an older brother and a younger sister. Lately I have found myself in the middle of a lot of decisions in life, and maybe you can relate.

I am constantly in the middle of some kind of craft or project. I am in the middle of trying to figure out when to move to a different apartment or house. I am in the middle of navigating the online dating world. I am in the middle of figuring out what I want my long term career to look like. I am in the middle of attempting to keep my plants alive. I am in the middle of making new travel plans. I am in the middle of looking forward to the rest of my life. I am in the middle.

In order to be in the middle, we need to begin. Obviously our lives begin when we are born. Some say that high school is a time for beginning. Some say the same for college while others after graduation. Truth is those are all middle mile markers. During our day to day life we make choices on what we begin, too.

I make a point to begin new projects because I like to have a creative outlet besides the work that I do at the dance studio. I am always dreaming of living somewhere bigger and better than where I am now. I know that in order to not be single forever I have to have at least one online dating app and put effort into swiping right and left. I started to do some soul searching to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life, and figure out how to afford my dreams of a new place to live and traveling. Not everything has to begin at the same time.

Sometimes when you begin too many things all at the same time, you need to bring some endings together. When I am at a creative loss I get this stuck feeling and I don’t know what to do to get out of it. Last week I got my hair cut and highlighted, painted my nails, and made time to journal by a river to try to bring back my sparkle that was feeling quite dull. I knew that I needed to bring some ends together to get unstuck.

~The dance season has officially come to a close as we competed at a national level competition. I am in the middle of summer classes, and get to create new ideas to begin in the fall.

~I helped out with a marching band’s color guard for 2 weeks. Which was a two-way-blessing to work with them, but that time came to a close, too.

~ I knew that I needed to let people in. Keeping my stuck feelings to myself was not helping me get past them. Talking out loud and asking for advice was hard to do, but I feel better now that I did it.

~ Journaling about my thoughts, feelings, and emotions helped me process all of the feelings and make an action plan to take steps towards tying up some more of my loose ends.

Once I tie up a few ends I will have room for more to begin. It is the circle of life, and we all have different beginnings and endings. What we do in the middle may not seem like a big deal. Being in the middle is where most of our day to day lives happen. Why do we often wish the middle away? It is not always easy and sometimes feels impossible, but we have to believe that there is a purpose for our lives. With that purpose we can put one foot in front of the other and dance the story of our lives one song at a time.

“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” -Albert Einstein

“Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.” – Jon Acuff

“Sometimes, you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes, in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself.” – unknown