5.2 the Messy Middle

We're talking about the messy middle.

Now, for some reason, my experiences over the last couple of weeks have really been with people I love who are in the messy middle.

And if I'm being honest, I'm in the messy middle.

Most listeners of this podcast are seekers.

They're the spiritually inclined seekers.

There are those really looking and searching for wisdom, for answers, for divinity in life.

I believe that we have a long view and are attempting to play the long game.

But the question today is, what about the short game, or what I like to call the messy middle? The way I'm going to define this is DAMN.

It's an acronym for aspects of the messy middle.

So the D can represent death, death of a spouse, death of a child.

It can represent a diagnosis, uncertainty in the face of death.

It can represent divorce or breakups or relationship strains, the death of an income or a job or a career change or a move, something that is a really, really, really big change where we are called on to release the old life and try and embrace a new existence.

And that can be insanely challenging.

And I was talking to a dear friend this week who lost her spouse two years ago and has a tremendous long-term eternal perspective.

But what do you deal with right now? And how our quips are like, it's all going to be okay in the end.

It's like, who flipping cares? What about the next 30 years? Or what about the next 30 days? Or sometimes the next 30 hours? The age in this can be biology.

Menopause is kicking my trash.

I have it as the A and the M. I feel like I've just been hit by a railroad train.

with this biologically, but age, aging parents, there's a lot of things that go along with age.

I also want age to represent our assumptions.

I think in our age of social media and the way that our feeds and our news and everything that we in jazz, particularly emotionally and intellectually, is curated to perpetuate this train of thought, assuming that they have it all or they have it all together.

Appearances would also fall under this A, like the appearance of completeness or perfection or having it all together.

This is all just an illusion, but it doesn't take away the way it acts upon our intellect.

The M, for me personally, menopause is the top of the M category, but it can also be just this midlife.

Maybe it's a maybe also on we, life, numbness.

We're talking about the messy middle.

Now, for some reason, my experiences over the last couple of weeks have really been with people I love who are in the messy middle.

And if I'm being honest, I'm in the messy middle.

Most listeners of this podcast are seekers.

They're the spiritually inclined seekers.

There are those really looking and searching for wisdom, for answers, for divinity in life.

I believe that we have a long view and are attempting to play the long game.

But the question today is, what about the short game, or what I like to call the messy middle? The way I'm going to define this is DAMN.

It's an acronym for aspects of the messy middle.

So the D can represent death, death of a spouse, death of a child.

It can represent a diagnosis, uncertainty in the face of death.

It can represent divorce or breakups or relationship strains, the death of an income or a job or a career change or a move, something that is a really, really, really big change where we are called on to release the old life and try and embrace a new existence.

And that can be insanely challenging.

And I was talking to a dear friend this week who lost her spouse two years ago and has a tremendous long-term eternal perspective.

But what do you deal with right now? And how our quips are like, it's all going to be okay in the end.

It's like, who flipping cares? What about the next 30 years? Or what about the next 30 days? Or sometimes the next 30 hours? The age in this can be biology.

Menopause is kicking my trash.

I have it as the A and the M. I feel like I've just been hit by a railroad train.

with this biologically, but age, aging parents, there's a lot of things that go along with age.

I also want age to represent our assumptions.

I think in our age of social media and the way that our feeds and our news and everything that we in jazz, particularly emotionally and intellectually, is curated to perpetuate this train of thought, assuming that they have it all or they have it all together.

Appearances would also fall under this A, like the appearance of completeness or perfection or having it all together.

This is all just an illusion, but it doesn't take away the way it acts upon our intellect.

The M, for me personally, menopause is the top of the M category, but it can also be just this midlife.

Maybe it's a maybe also on we, life, numbness.