The Myth of the Messy Middle
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It’s a great metaphor for the process of healing and personal growth, moving from point A to point B, the process can be messy.
A leaving behind of the things that no longer serve, the old behaviors and the patterns and conditioned responses that keep us stuck, the looping tracks in our minds, the relationship dynamics we tend to repeat.
Letting go of one thing to shift towards something better, new, more authentic and sustainable, supportive of your whole core self, can cause utter chaos. It helps to identify that chaos as the mess in the middle.
Oh that it were actually true, this steady progress with the light at the end of the tunnel analogy. But the reality is that life and transitions, healing and growth, and mystical, beautiful, metamorphosis processes tend to overlap and blend together and run in circles without the hard edges of beginning, middle, end.
Just as we get through one cycle of growth, another begins. A babe is born, the dogs are barking, the bouquet on the table wilts, the doctor calls with the news, the toddler reaches for your hand and says your name plain as day, that same motorcycle speeds by at the same time every night, the crickets chirp, the weather turns, you forgot to sign this paper mom, the dinner burns, the mortgage is overdue, the article you wrote has won an award.
Life is everything, all of it, all at once.
But you’ll still catch me saying I’m in the messy middle. I like the flow of it. Like a promise and a prompt. Look for the rainbow amongst the clouds kind of thing.