A Middle Girl’s Guide to Beginnings

Kicking and screaming, a middle girl (me) sits down to start where we all must: at the beginning.

For the love of middles

Most people hate endings. They’re often uncomfortable, void of “real” closure, and happen far sooner than we’d like.

Beginnings give me a similar spinal shiver.

The wide-open sky of possibility that lives inside a beginning has only ever paralyzed me.

Instead, I live for the middles — when the rapport is established, the characters are known, and the plot is understood.

Of course, the human experience is such that we can’t actually have one without the others.

Beginnings, middles, and ends.

“The beginning is the most important part of the work” — Plato

Rule of three

The Latin saying “omne trium perfectum” translates to “everything that comes in threes is perfect.”

Without the beginning or the end, the middle carries less weight.

In order for the middle to reach its full potential, we have to get the beginning and the end right.

And we can’t get it right if we’re only ever ripping the bandaid off — gritting our teeth through it in order to get back to the part that’s comfortable. As with most of life, mindful presence is the key to our success

“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.”

— Alan Cohen

No wrong way to start

When it comes to beginnings, the only wrong way to begin is to fail to begin at all. External circumstances will never be perfect, but we do ourselves a disservice when we put off taking that first step.

And so I’m beginning.

I’m embarking on a journey of getting to know myself on the deepest level, of loving myself in the most authentic ways I know how, and of building my life around those values.

Without a doubt, it’ll be messy, confusing, and incomplete at times. But it will always be genuine. And someday, I’ll reach another middle.

Until then, here’s to the beginnings that we choose ✨🌱

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