A Threshold Without a Name

This time of year often marks a kind of threshold — the point between what has been lived and what hasn’t yet begun. For some, it’s a pause; for others, it’s simply another stretch of time carrying its own demands and complexities.

Either way, it sits between endings and beginnings, and that can stir something quietly underneath the surface.

Many people find themselves reflecting during this in-between — not because everything has slowed down, but because the calendar itself holds a question mark. The year behind hasn’t fully settled, and the year ahead hasn’t yet taken shape.

This is where change often makes itself felt.

Not as a dramatic moment or clear decision, but as a subtle internal shift. Life still functions. Things may look steady from the outside. And yet, something no longer feels quite the same.

You’re no longer where you were —
and you’re not yet sure where you’re going.

This is the space I often see people struggling with most. Not because something is “wrong”, but because it’s hard to live without clear edges. We’re encouraged to look for answers, plans, resolutions — especially at this time of year.

But real change doesn’t always follow the calendar.
And it doesn’t always move quickly.

I want to name something that often goes unspoken: even as a coach, I’ve spent long stretches in my own in-between.

Not stuck.
Not lost.
But living inside questions that didn’t resolve neatly or quickly.

At times, years of knowing something was shifting — without being able to rush it into clarity.

This isn’t a failure of insight or courage. It’s part of how meaningful change often unfolds.

The in-between isn’t a holding pattern until you “get it right”. It’s a living phase where old ways loosen and new ones begin to form quietly, often beneath the surface.

What tends to help here isn’t pressure, but gentleness.

Listening rather than forcing.
Noticing rather than fixing.
Allowing yourself to admit: I don’t know yet — but I know something is changing.

That kind of honesty requires self-trust. Not the loud, confident kind — but the quieter trust that you don’t need to rush your own timing.

If you find yourself in an in-between right now — personally, professionally, or internally — you’re not behind. You’re not doing it wrong. And you’re certainly not alone.

Sometimes the work of this season isn’t to decide anything at all.

It’s to let yourself stand where you are without immediately trying to move on. To notice what feels heavier than it used to, and what you’re no longer willing to carry forward — even if you don’t yet know what will replace it.

This time between Christmas and New Year can remind us that pauses are part of life’s rhythm. Not everything is meant to resolve before we move forward. Some things need time — not to be fixed, but to be lived with.

Long in-betweens don’t mean nothing is happening. They often mean something important is taking its time.

If you find yourself here — reflective, uncertain, quietly aware that things are shifting — you don’t need to push for clarity or rush towards resolution. This space is not a problem to solve, but a place to inhabit with care.

Change doesn’t always announce itself with certainty. Sometimes it arrives as a steady, almost imperceptible turning — one that only becomes clear once you’ve been living it for a while.
For now, it may be enough to acknowledge where you are, to trust that you are not late or lacking, and to allow this in-between to be what it is.

A threshold.
Without a name.
A moment of becoming 🌱🌳