Halfway

For us here, on AWordBetweenUs, this post is halfway.  It has been a wonderful downhill ride from the moment we launched.  But calling this halfway commits us even more.  In the first half of something you can always give up.  Or change direction.  But now that we’re here.  In the middle.  And it’s announced.  We’re in.  For another 26 weeks.

Somewhere along the way I got the impression that halfway meant half finished.  It meant that you had just as much left as you’d already completed.  The first part would immediately be finished by the second part which was equal...halfway. 

This.  Is false.  And halfway trips me up all the time. 

A few years ago when I was in the process of losing 40 pounds, I got to 20 pounds down and celebrated my halfway point.  It seemed so logical…and necessary.  Losing 20 pounds is a major accomplishment.  Just 20 more to go.  What I soon discovered was that although the pounds were equal, the effort was not equal.  That second 20 was not the same as the first 20. It was So. Much. Harder.  Downhill to the first 20 pounds and uphill for the last 20 pounds.  In some ways my mind was farther along than my body.  I had begun to make the changes in habit and it was just up to my body to catch up.  In my head I was changed, but in the mirror I was not changed enough.  The mental effort in the first half was Go! Go! Go! and in the second half was ComeOn! ComeOn! ComeOn!  Long story short…coming halfway did not mean I was half finished.  

  

A few weeks ago I started running.  After many miles on the treadmill I asked my husband to map out a route for me on the road that would take me 5 miles.  Out and back.  I’d know just where halfway was so I could make sure I had enough power left to get me home.  The road was the same going and coming.  The route was equal in each direction.  But the effort was not equal.  That second half was So. Much. Harder.  I had to push so much more.  It became just as much of a mental effort as a physical effort in the second half.  Not equal.  Crazy how that tree I flew past on the trip out looked different on the way back because it was all I could do to push myself to run to it.  It was not the same tree.

For some things, you wouldn’t want to know halfway when you got to it because it would mean that you could start counting an equal number of days until the end.  Oooo…if you knew something was going to come to an end that would certainly affect your efforts.  Maybe not in a good way.  I hope nobody ever makes a note to me of the halfway point of my friendships.  My marriage.  My life. 

 

The second half is mental.  The stuff that comes after halfway is all about paying attention and making decisions.  About being settled with what you’ve done so far and using it to pave the next way.  And sometimes halfway is just a spot on the journey that doesn’t mean as much as you thought it would.  Sometimes halfway is just the middle bit. 

     

So back to AWordBetweenUs.  Welcome to halfway.  Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or you just found us last week.  We’re at 26 weeks.  And for this year, that’s halfway.  But for this partnership that we started…this creative connection that we’re making…this thing we’re building that is distinctly Nancy and Susan together

…it’s just the beginning.

***Contributor's Note.  Have you got a word for us?  What would you choose as the inspiration for one of our upcoming weeks?  Leave us a comment here or go to our Facebook page and give us a word.