Living through the In-Between Time: 3 Steps to Surviving the Midnight Hour

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​You are in the in-between if something is no longer,
​but the next thing has not yet become.

The in-between is a dark place.  Sometimes we get there by our own choices.  Other times it is handed to us.  We are used to something being one way and then it changes.  When this change is close to our heart it’s like losing something essential.  Something that defined who we were.  Something that marks the coming of a new season.
 
In a recent effort to simplify my life, I’ve started to sift through my belongings.  I’ve read old journals and gazed at photos from the past.  In some ways it felt like peeking into a past life.  Images of people that are no longer in my world.  Circles that I no longer circle.  Much of the time it’s like a glowing ember of warmth.  I can remember the concerts, the dinners, the resting on couches to discuss life’s most important topics.  Then as I turn the page or scroll up on my phone I’m back to right now.  The in-between.
 
I’d like to think that when we choose our changes they hurt less.  They don’t.  We are creatures of habit and we like the reliability of a stable routine.  Until those routines don’t work for us anymore.
 
When we say no; no more; this must go – we mean it.  But we can’t escape the severe stab of loss.  It’s dizzying and lonely.
 
I call this time the midnight hour.  For weeks and even months it feels like midnight.  The darkness makes things blurry.  We doubt our eyes and think ill-intention is everywhere.  We rehearse.  Ask questions.  Beg the next step to reveal itself.  The midnight hour does not pass quickly.  It triples and quadruples in length.  It doesn’t care that our feelings are hurt.  The midnight hour invites us into the void.
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​We don’t always choose this path.  Sometimes it is handed to us through diagnoses, deaths, and paths unseen.  Life is moving on just fine and bam!  We have a weird medical symptom, a loss, and new thing that takes over our every thought.  It alters how we show up.  It rewires what we know to be true and breaks it down piece by piece.  It’s disorienting and painful.
 
The midnight hour is like a well of doubt.  Anxiety deepens the space.  Hurt makes it darker.
 
I am not a stranger to the midnight hour.  When we are committed to growing we will have these seasons.  Even when we know the midnight hour well, the vastness of it never ceases to pull us under.
 
If you are stuck between what was and what is yet to be, here’s a way through:

1.  Go inward.
Take this time to know yourself better.  When the world seems like it’s swirling past you find a way to slow yourself down.  If we’re not careful we’ll hook onto a story that fuels our fears.  We’ll start to believe that midnight will last forever.  This isn’t true.  Take the time to ask good questions.  Honor your feelings.  Look at your problem with a softer focus.  Wonder about how this issue can help you.  Instead of being mad at it, ask, “What are you here to teach me?”
 
2.  Go outward.
You cannot do this alone.  I repeat:  you cannot do this alone.  You need to go to your people.  Ask them to listen to your story.  At first you just need someone to hear your story over and over.  When the sting begins to lessen you can ask for feedback.  You can discuss, “What does this mean?  What is my role?  How can I hold this gently?”  You get to share this story with people that you trust.  This connection will be a reminder that dawn will come again.

3.  Seek the Wayfinders.
During the midnight hour we will do almost anything to receive the map.  The get-me-out-of-here-now plan.  The answers are everywhere.  You will find your way through a random conversation, in a wise Instagram post, a line in a novel.  You will get closer to the light through prayer and meditation.  You will see things more clearly with the aid of therapists, healers, mentors, and dear friends.  Your wayfinders are everywhere.  Be open to them.  Everything is designed to help you.
 
This process of simplifying my life has been good in many ways.  I’m a bit of a “keeper”.  I like to store items that remind me of a previous time.  After a while though they stack up and become just another pile of papers that were once important to me.  In my decluttering process I found old pay stubs, movie tickets, trinkets, and notes (from decades ago, people!).  In this pile of memories, I saw old problems.  Jobs that weren’t a good fit.  People that were once central to me and eventually moved out of orbit. 
 
In this pile of things from the past I remembered my old midnight hours.  I wasn’t sure if I’d make it through some of those midnights.  The dark seemed so dark.  I remember praying for answers.  Wishing for crystal balls.  Wanting the map to present itself.  When I re-read old notes and looked at photos I was reminded of the intense ache.  The anxiety.  The distress of not knowing when the long-awaited daylight hours would return.
 
But I’m here now.  So midnight didn’t, in fact, last forever.
 

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​I ask you now:  what was your midnight hour three midnights ago?  When I asked myself this question it felt like my brain had to stretch itself to reconnect to old problems.  Problems that I thought would overtake me.  Would pull me under.  Would undo me and make my life unrecognizable.  But now?  Now I have to work to remember them.
 
The midnight hour is a tricky place.  It bends shapes and messes with our sense of time.  Hours and minutes get mixed up.  Darkness has a way of making us forget what lives at its edges.  There will be a night that feels like the hour got stuck at 12:00 a.m., but more is yet to be revealed.  At the edge of this hour is dawn.  Lines will sharpen as the sunlight slips through our shades to brighten the room.  Like a slow yawn, we will be released from the grip of night to begin again.  A new way always shows itself.  It just takes longer than we’d like.
 
To your midnight or future midnights & to new beginnings.
 
With Love and Backbone,
 
Jen
 
P.S.  Check out this Chai Talk Podcast, Don’t Bypass Your Anger, to learn more about healing and moving through hard emotions.
 
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Nice Girl Uprising, Jennifer Padilla-Burger