The space between
There are moments in life that do not announce themselves as beginnings or endings.
They arrive quietly, often without ceremony.
A house becomes quieter after children leave.
A familiar city fades as a new one waits, still unknown.
A role that once defined us ends, and the next has not yet taken shape.
A new baby arrives, and the world reorganizes overnight.
A chapter closes, not painfully, not joyfully, just completely.
This is the space between.
It is not emptiness, though it can feel that way.
It is not failure, nor delay.
It is the unfamiliar middle. Where the old no longer fits, and the new has not yet found its shape.
In this space, the inner world can feel exposed.
The routines that once anchored us loosen.
The mirrors we used to recognize ourselves no longer reflect back clearly.
And so the mind often rushes in.
It searches for certainty.
It looks for something to grasp, a decision, a distraction, a purchase, a plan.
Anything to relieve the discomfort of not knowing who we are becoming.
But the space between is not asking to be escaped.
It is asking to be lived.
This is the place where loneliness can appear, not because we are truly alone, but because identity is shifting.
The soul recognizes change before language does.
And in that recognition, there can be grief, tenderness, fear, and quiet wonder all at once.
Some move through this space by rushing forward.
Some freeze.
Some sink into sadness.
Some pretend nothing has changed at all.
And some slowly begin to notice what is still here.
The breath.
The body.
The room they are standing in.
The light at a different hour of the day.
The simple act of placing one foot in front of the other.
The space between does not require answers.
It requires presence.
It is not a problem to solve.
It is a season to be witnessed.
When we allow ourselves to stand here, without panic, without urgency, something quiet begins to settle.
Not clarity.
Not certainty.
But a sense of being held by life itself.
Even here.
Especially here.
The space between is not where we disappear.
It is where we are gently reintroduced to ourselves.
