“Woah - We’re Halfway There!”

Today marks the halfway point of the 31 Days of Blog Challenge. Which is wild. Considering that I started this on a whim at the beginning of this month, I’m surprised that so far (touch wood!) I haven’t missed a single day.

Not to diminish my conscious contribution to my success so far, but I’d say that’s a huge stroke of good luck. It’s also got me thinking about midpoints, and a particular memory from my childhood.

When I was a kid, my dad used to take me on these long walks through the woods, across with rapeseed fields to the shopping centre and back again. It was a way to spend the afternoon together outside when the weather was good.

My main memory of those walks is from on the way back. The sun would dip below the horizon behind us and the blue of the earth’s shadow crested over the trees as night approach. My little legs were tired and I started to fall behind as dad strode onward. I’d call out to him that I couldn’t take another step, that I was too tired to keep walking.

And he would take this huge torch that he had - the kind of torch that tradesman dads always have kicking around - and he’d point it ahead of us and say, “see? The light is hitting the trees. We’re half way there.” And six-year-old-me would trudge up to him and we’d walk on home.

Midpoints are unforgiving in many ways. Whether we forge forward or decide to turn back, we have the same amount to trudging, no matter how weary we are. Deep in the proverbial darkness, we can’t quite see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if we know it’s there, just beyond our vision. It’s a struggle to keep going.

But sometimes knowing that the struggle is normal, that there’s nothing wrong with you for finding it hard, is enough to trust in putting one foot in front of the other.

So here’s to the proverbial torchlight torching the treeline. Let’s keep walking.