The Case for Staying in the Middle
I keep waiting for a finish line that doesn't exist. A cleaner kitchen. A neatly written script. A parenting win that feels like a full stop. But life doesn't really tie up like that - at least not often. More and more, I'm realizing how much of the good stuff lives right in the middle.
Our brains are wired to seek completion, to look for the highlight reel moments that make good stories. But what if we're missing the point? What if the real richness isn't in the finish line, but in the long stretch of road before it?
1. You're not behind if you're in progress
There's no leaderboard. You're not late. You're just in the story.
That novel half-written in your drawer isn't a failure - it's a work in progress. The parenting approach you're still figuring out isn't evidence you're doing it wrong. You're learning, adjusting, becoming. The middle is where growth actually happens.
2. Middle moments hold the shape of your days
Making lunch again. Commuting. The third time you reheat your coffee. It all matters. It's not filler - it's the structure.
These moments aren't what we endure between the good parts. They are the good parts, or at least they can be when we stop treating them like interruptions. The rhythm of your days isn't created by the big events - it's built from a thousand small acts of tending and showing up.
3. Tending counts as winning
A plant watered on time. A small moment of presence with a child. A pot stirred without rushing. These are wins.
We've been taught to measure success by outcomes, but what about the steady care that makes outcomes possible? The daily choice to tend - to your health, your relationships, your craft - creates the foundation for everything else. Most love happens in ordinary Tuesday conversations, not grand gestures.
4. Most things worth doing look boring while they're happening
And that's okay.
The writer at their desk for the hundredth morning wrestling with the same paragraph. The parent reading the same bedtime story with genuine attention. The friend who texts back consistently, even when life gets busy. From the outside, it looks like nothing. From the inside, it's everything.
A Simple Practice
Try this: Before moving to the next task, pause and notice one thing about what you just did. The weight of the folded laundry in your hands. The steam rising from the pot you just stirred. The sound of your child's laughter as they help clumsily with chores. Not to Instagram it or analyze it—just to notice.
If you're in the middle of something - healing, building, trying - consider this your sign to stop rushing toward the end. There's meaning here too. The middle isn't the place you get stuck; it's the place where you live.
