Men are born soft and supple;
dead, they are stiff and hard.
Plants are born tender and pliant;
dead, they are brittle and dry.
Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
is a disciple of life.
The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail.
Lao Tzu

Between the old and the new
lies the messy middle.

I borrow the phrase from Bruce Feiler,**
An accurate term when I recall the three times
I was voted and and had to move on from a role,
Though not for the best part of a year
three times over,
And also the time I decided to leave a role myself
and the two years this was to take.

Determined to use the messy middle in order to
grow and develop,
My journal accompanied me for much of this;
I didn’t journal or read much when it happened the first time,
And the difference for becoming a reader
and having my journal for the other times was
significant:

Writing in your journal is more powerful than simple meditation for the same reason that writing your goals down is more powerful than leaving them in your head.^

From a certain angle,
It feels as if all of these transitions meld into a messy middle,
And every day I am exploring towards the
something new.

This morning,
I found myself pondering the “what ifs”
of staying instead of having to move,
Or moving in a different direction to the one that I have.

There is something inside that assures me that
each of these would have been
a good life,
But this one,
Born of all the messiness,
is best,
And for this I am grateful,
Each of these posts being an expression of my
gratitude,
Today’s being number
3,219.

A transition is an adhesive and a healer. It takes something broken and begins to repair it. It takes something shaken and helps steady it. It takes something shapeless and starts to give it shape.**

*From James Clear’s Atomic Habits;
**Bruce Feiler’s Life Is In the Transitions;
^Ben Hardy’s Willpower Doesn’t Work.