The Middle Path
When neither road feels right, it may be time to walk the one only you can create.
Lately, I’ve been witnessing a quiet ache in many of my 1:1 sessions. A familiar tension. Clients standing at a crossroads. Not just any crossroads, but one paved by stories passed down through generations, shaped by family expectations, societal norms, and inherited definitions of success.
These crossroads often appear binary:
Be a full-time parent or pursue a full-time career.
Make art for others or make art for yourself.
Take the stable job or follow your dream.
Be a breadwinner or a dreamer.
Create for validation or create from intuition.
Walk a proven path or risk forging your own.
The two paths are well-worn, clearly marked. They’ve been walked by many. There are road signs, instructions, even metrics for success. And yet, for so many, neither path feels like home.
What if there’s another way?
What if there’s a third path, not a compromise between the two, but something altogether different? Not the road less traveled, but the road not yet made.
The middle path.
It doesn’t arrive with certainty or structure. It won’t grant you instant clarity or approval. It asks more of you than either extreme because it’s a path you must co-create. One that integrates what serves you from both sides and lets go of what doesn’t. It’s not about choosing between art and survival, intuition and intellect, tradition and freedom. It’s about weaving a way forward that honors all of who you are.
The middle path is subtle. It isn’t paved with accolades or blueprints. It’s carved through presence, choice by choice, step by courageous step. It’s spiritual in that it asks you to trust the unseen. To trust yourself. To walk not toward a known destination, but toward a deep remembering.
And maybe that’s what this time is asking of us.
In a world unraveling, where jobs are disappearing, systems are shifting, and what once felt certain is crumbling. We are being asked to see differently. To imagine new ways of being. To soften the edges of the either/or and instead ask, What if both? What if neither? What if something else entirely?
The middle path may not have a name yet. But it’s yours to walk.
And your footsteps will give it form.
I feel this. I'm in the midst of defining my own middle path, feeling my way through the mystery of this new way. It's uncomfortable, scary, and exciting, too.
This is such an important message. We’re moving so fast and see so many paths laid in front of us, that sometimes it’s harder than it should be to slow down and make decisions deliberately, based on self vs external pressures.
I love the idea that perhaps a larger societal mindset shift is necessary given this new landscape. It’s worth taking the time to figure out what’s best for us as individuals and as a broader community.