Feeling Lost...

But I know where you are. You are in between. In the middle. The middle of here and there, far and near, old and young, now and then, this and that, mature and young, adult and child, spontaneous and planned, rigid and flexible,

What was and what is.

That's where you are. You float there, in the middle. Just float. Because you don't know enough to know which way to struggle. Don't know where the surface is, just know where you are not. You might move your limbs every now and then, but you do not really expect to get anything from your efforts. You just float and feel

Lost.

I know that feeling. The indefinite quality of your surroundings makes you feel lost, but what really bothers you, occupies your mind, and occasionally makes you strike out against your Middle place, is the Alone.

Stuck in the middle, you feel like no one else is around you. You focus so tightly on the inside of your eyelids that you fail to see. See that the place where you are is not an empty middle ground, devoid of anyone who could possibly see what you see. No.

I am here. So are the others. The countless others of us who are in the Middle of everything we have ever been and everything we will ever become. We are all floating in this nothing. I could reach out my hand, should the desire strike me, and grasp your wrist, just as you could do the same to the one on your other side, and the many that reside with us here could all touch hands.

Touching my hand won't make the Middle any less indefinite. Won't make the murky water clearer. Because I don't know the direction in which the light cuts the surface any more than you do. Here with you, all I see is what you see. All I know is what you know, and all I hear is the shallow, panicked sounds of my own breath and heart. No, I can't make the middle any less terrifying.

All I can do is hold your hand, can give you warm, solid, pulsing proof that you are not alone. The emptiness you feel is only beneath your skin as you slowly rid yourself of everything you are in favor of everything you might be.

Losing all of those things that once defined you is frightening, but you've already done that. If you were still clinging to the past, you would not be here with me, in the Middle. So release a bit, the worst part has passed. All that remains is to float. Float until slowly, slowly, slowly, the world rights itself, the light begins to make definite angles, and the surface breaks over your face. When that happens, when your world defines itself anew, then you can let go of my hand and do this for yourself.

But for now, hold tight. After all, with your eyes open the way they are, we all make a beautiful picture, just floating along, hand in hand. It's not a portrait of terror-inducing isolation, but a scene of the young-becoming-old holding each other in place as we glean from the Middle the things we could not get on either side. We need not be overwhelmed by the Alone to learn what the Middle has to teach us. I can learn just as much with my hand grasping yours and yours grasping mine.

So don't feel lost. Just hold tight to me. Together we may overcome the fear of the unknown land that is the Middle.