My name is Dawn, and I miss the holiday lights. That’s it. That’s my #FridayIntroduction.
The holiday lights are connected to the fact that it was the most dark around the winter solstice. The lights were there to cheer us up and remind us that the darkness will not continue.
And now it’s January. It’s cold, and we haven’t yet really noticed those extra 55 seconds a day of sunlight. We’re in that middle place, sort of like when you’ve been exercising for awhile but your body isn’t so different yet that others notice anything. You’ve got to stay committed through this middle part before you start getting external validation.
Isn’t this precisely when we need the lights? Why do we take them down?!?
Every big important project has that middle stage that is not well lit. Cleaning out your kitchen. Writing a doctoral thesis. Planning VBS. (Is anyone doing that yet?) Raising a child. (ha!)
The beginning gets a lot of energy and “light,” and the end will be obvious and noticed by everyone, but the middle is where the real work happens. It’s where people struggle or grow. It’s where we learn the most about ourselves.
And so, for this “middle place” that all of us above the 43rd meridian are experiencing in the weather, I take a page from the Scandanavians who surrounded us growing up in Minnesota and North Dakota. They embrace the dark, cold, middle place. They cozy up with their Danish hygge and their lesser-known Swedish lagom, and they have things to look forward to about this season.
So what can you look forward to about this actual season of weather, and what can you then apply to that “middle stage” in your projects and tasks?
And if you need help getting through that “middle place,” I’m always here to help.
Stop settling. Start living your story.
